Got to love the WBA...

One fight in 3 years and after a 2 minute blowout against a bodybuilder....
David Haye goes straight into the WBA top 10


Sure the other governing bodies will be equally quick to rank him as they know he brings in decent cash.
One more fight and I'm sure he'll get a title shot.

Pathetic really.

http://www.skysports.com/boxing/news/12183/10136533/david-haye-has-been-named-as-no-9-in-the-updated-wba-heavyweight-rankings

I think it takes your previous ranking into account, he was the WBA champ for a while

Given Shannon Briggs in in the top ten and has basically spent 2 years screaming "let's go champ" Haye's ranking isn't that surprising. Then again Haye's also ranked below Antonio Tarver whose last meaningful fight at HW was against Rocky Balboa

Nothing new...

All name fighters get preferential treatment...Always have..

All alphabets do it so why pick on Haye...

I'm glad he is..Too many time wasting East Euro slobs in the rankings..

Taking into account that he's a "name" and he was previously the WBA champion....

He hasn't fought in 3 and a half years and his comeback fight was against a stiff, hand picked because he was, apparently, a top ten fighter.

Surely stick him somewhere around 20.

He's in prime "voluntary defence" position.

Hasn't he just replaced the guy he knocked out?

It's very doubtful that there are ten better Heavyweights out there than Haye so don't see what the issue with him having an immediately high ranking is.

Which once again underlines how meaningless the alphabet titles and rankings are. Rankings and title tilts are essentially bought by promoters who can offer the alphabet gangs the biggest split.

Fury is the boss until someone beats him. The rest is a nonsense.

hazharrison wrote:Which once again underlines how meaningless the alphabet titles and rankings are. Rankings and title tilts are essentially bought by promoters who can offer the alphabet gangs the biggest split.

Fury is the boss until someone beats him. The rest is a nonsense.

Thank goodness Spinks didn't duck Tyson forever then....He never would have been champion..

As stupidly ranked as de mori was, he was in their top 10 and Haye demolished him. I don't see what the fuss is with Haye basically replacing him.

What rank was Tyson after Prison? He fought for a world title quick.

Does anyone else think Haye would make easy work with AJ at this stage?

Ronikara wrote:As stupidly ranked as de mori was, he was in their top 10 and Haye demolished him. I don't see what the fuss is with Haye basically replacing him.

This. De Mori was the WBA no 10 (not quite sure how, but hey-ho), and if Haye beat him, then he was always going into their top ten. What did everyone expect?

Adam I don't know about making easy work of AJ. The question is how elusive Haye is with his increased weight. If he can land without getting hit, he beats AJ. If he has to take AJs shots, it's a 50-50 fight

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:

hazharrison wrote:Which once again underlines how meaningless the alphabet titles and rankings are. Rankings and title tilts are essentially bought by promoters who can offer the alphabet gangs the biggest split.

Fury is the boss until someone beats him. The rest is a nonsense.

Thank goodness Spinks didn't duck Tyson forever then....He never would have been champion..

He wouldn't have been the man who beat the man, no. Although Spinks would have either been beaten or retired eventually and Tyson was always destined to take over.

Tyson was essentially in the same position Golovkin is currently: he had all the belts and the lineal (real) champion wouldn't fight him. Thankfully HBO created a tournament to allow Tyson to collect the titles far more quickly and readily than Golovkin can.

Saunders passing on a career-high £2m plus payday sums up the ludicrous position GGG finds himself in.

Imagine Spinks had demanded Tyson only weigh 190!

AdamT wrote:Does anyone else think Haye would make easy work with AJ at this stage?

Joshua would (will) thrash Haye.

For what it's worth, these rankings are probably the best around:

http://www.tbrb.org/all-rankings/

HEAVYWEIGHT

Champion Tyson Fury 24-0-0 (18) ENG ***

1 Wladimir Klitschko 64-4-0 (53) UKR 1
2 Alexander Povetkin 30-1-0 (22) RUS 2
3 Deontay Wilder 36-0-0 (35) USA 3
4 Luis Ortiz 24-0-0 (21) CUB 4
5 Kubrat Pulev 22-1-0 (12) BUL 5
6 Bermane Stiverne 24-2-1 (21) CAN 6
7 Carlos Takam 31-2-1 (24) CMR 7
8 Anthony Joshua 15-0-0 (15) ENG 9
9 Charles Martin 23-0-1 (21) USA --
10 Vyacheslav Glazkov 21-1-1 (13)

De Mori somehow had a WBA ranking of 10 so Haye leap frogged.

Rankings of the individual organisations are appalling.

As Haz said, the independent rankings are far more realistic.

hazharrison wrote:For what it's worth, these rankings are probably the best around:

http://www.tbrb.org/all-rankings/

HEAVYWEIGHT

Champion Tyson Fury 24-0-0 (18) ENG ***

1 Wladimir Klitschko 64-4-0 (53) UKR 1
2 Alexander Povetkin 30-1-0 (22) RUS 2
3 Deontay Wilder 36-0-0 (35) USA 3
4 Luis Ortiz 24-0-0 (21) CUB 4
5 Kubrat Pulev 22-1-0 (12) BUL 5
6 Bermane Stiverne 24-2-1 (21) CAN 6
7 Carlos Takam 31-2-1 (24) CMR 7
8 Anthony Joshua 15-0-0 (15) ENG 9
9 Charles Martin 23-0-1 (21) USA --
10 Vyacheslav Glazkov 21-1-1 (13)

Haye would need to face (and beat fairly) convincingly one of those for him to be taken seriously again. Glazkov is injured and Eddie wants no part of Haye fighting Joshua at the time, Wlad has his rematch and Wilder has designs on Povetkin. Outside of that, there's no reason why haye shouldn't be pushing for a fight with one of those remaining. Whether they WANT to fight him is of course another matter entirely. Maybe Haye needs to go to the USA.

DAVE667 wrote:

hazharrison wrote:For what it's worth, these rankings are probably the best around:

http://www.tbrb.org/all-rankings/

HEAVYWEIGHT

Champion Tyson Fury 24-0-0 (18) ENG ***

1 Wladimir Klitschko 64-4-0 (53) UKR 1
2 Alexander Povetkin 30-1-0 (22) RUS 2
3 Deontay Wilder 36-0-0 (35) USA 3
4 Luis Ortiz 24-0-0 (21) CUB 4
5 Kubrat Pulev 22-1-0 (12) BUL 5
6 Bermane Stiverne 24-2-1 (21) CAN 6
7 Carlos Takam 31-2-1 (24) CMR 7
8 Anthony Joshua 15-0-0 (15) ENG 9
9 Charles Martin 23-0-1 (21) USA --
10 Vyacheslav Glazkov 21-1-1 (13)

Haye would need to face (and beat fairly) convincingly one of those for him to be taken seriously again. Glazkov is injured and Eddie wants no part of Haye fighting Joshua at the time, Wlad has his rematch and Wilder has designs on Povetkin. Outside of that, there's no reason why haye shouldn't be pushing for a fight with one of those remaining. Whether they WANT to fight him is of course another matter entirely. Maybe Haye needs to go to the USA.

I've just seen some ridiculous WBA circular where they've dreamed up a mini-tournament to crown a champion (who I thought they already had in Fury).

QF 1

Fury vs Klitschko
Ortiz vs Ustinov

Winners meet

QF 2

Browne vs Chagaev
Oquendo

Winner meets Oquendo

I'd put a few bucks on Oquendo getting a call in the near future (I thought he was long gone).

Sadly you may be right but surely Haye knows the days of dipping his toe in the water at HW with fringe contenders like Monte Barrett are long gone and the public won't stand for it again. Unless there's open dialogue and transparency with the other HW publicly stating they don't want to fight Haye leaving no other option than the likes of Fres then I think he needs to be pushing for one of the guys making waves in the division.

DAVE667 wrote:Sadly you may be right but surely Haye knows the days of dipping his toe in the water at HW with fringe contenders like Monte Barrett are long gone and the public won't stand for it again. Unless there's open dialogue and transparency with the other HW publicly stating they don't want to fight Haye leaving no other option than the likes of Fres then I think he needs to be pushing for one of the guys making waves in the division.

Judging by the turn out saturday night I'd say the public will stand for it and buy it. People like to watch Haye.

Shocked to see oquendo's name in there.

He's from Latin America.......I'd be shocked if he wasn't in there..

Hasn't fought since 2014 when he lost yet gets a bye to the next round. Brilliant reasoning WBA.

TBH if he beat their #10 (in one of the most one-sided fights I can remember) then I don't see what choice they have but to put Haye up there. The real question is how on earth did De Mori get into their top 10 in the first place. The fact that he's a former champ helps, and as someone else said, name me 10 (or even 5) HWs who would beat him. Haye would probably dismantle the likes of Glazkov, Martin, Stiverne, etc. So I think it's a fair ranking.

smashingstormcrow wrote:TBH if he beat their #10 (in one of the most one-sided fights I can remember) then I don't see what choice they have but to put Haye up there. The real question is how on earth did De Mori get into their top 10 in the first place. The fact that he's a former champ helps, and as someone else said, name me 10 (or even 5) HWs who would beat him. Haye would probably dismantle the likes of Glazkov, Martin, Stiverne, etc. So I think it's a fair ranking.

Probably...but we don't know for sure as he's only beaten a bodybuilder (who learned to "box" watching YouTube) in the last few years.

Even referring to these lists as rankings is a misnomer. They're just a list of fighters who've paid the body sanctioning fees in some capacity (or who've been connected via a promoter - De Mori once fought under Don King I believe, perhaps that was his "in").

In reality, Haye should belong on the outer reaches of the top 100 until he beats someone within it.

It's an absolute waste of time trying to fathom the workings of these organisations. Once you ignore they exist and consult an independent set of rankings, life gets a lot easier.

Heavyweight

Champion: Fury
1. Klitschko
2. Povetkin
3. Wilder
4. Ortiz

That works for me.

smashingstormcrow wrote:TBH if he beat their #10 (in one of the most one-sided fights I can remember) then I don't see what choice they have but to put Haye up there. The real question is how on earth did De Mori get into their top 10 in the first place. The fact that he's a former champ helps, and as someone else said, name me 10 (or even 5) HWs who would beat him. Haye would probably dismantle the likes of Glazkov, Martin, Stiverne, etc. So I think it's a fair ranking.

There's a very good chance he was elevated to 10 a week before the fight. I seem to remember the original post of Hayes comeback against De Mori as a very poor opponent who possibly was ranked around 100 by one of the more credible independent boxing rankings. Obviously the powers that be in boxing have plans for Haye as he's one of the best selling HW's out there.

sohotnot wrote:
There's a very good chance he was elevated to 10 a week before the fight. I seem to remember the original post of Hayes comeback against De Mori as a very poor opponent who possibly was ranked around 100 by one of the more credible independent boxing rankings. Obviously the powers that be in boxing have plans for Haye as he's one of the best selling HW's out there.

I don't think that's right, I remember Haye banging on about his "top 10 opponent" for quite some time. Although of course, I realise that De Mori's #10 ranking was absurd!

Anyway, let's hope we at least learn something from his next fight. I've always enjoyed watching Haye (especially at cruiser, but even some of his HW fights) and I'd like to think he can pick up a belt, or at least give any of these guys a hard time. But he has a lot to prove...