Dubai: Former World Boxing Association (WBA) heavyweight champion David Haye is refusing to rule out a comeback this year. despite suffering from a potentially career-threatening shoulder injury.
The 33-year-old Briton had hinted at retirement in November after he was forced to cancel a planned bout this year with fellow countryman Tyson Fury to undergo surgery. However, fight fans had their hopes raised on New Year’s Eve when he tweeted: “2014 is going to be my healthiest, let’s start as we mean to go on.”
Speaking to Gulf News on the sidelines of a visit to the Rashid Paediatric Therapy Centre on Wednesday, Haye, who is also opening a gym in Downtown Dubai, sought to clarify confusion surrounding his future.
“I can’t say 100 per cent yes or 100 per cent no whether I’m retired from competitive boxing,” said Haye. “I’ll know in a few months’ time when I have my scan to see if it’s healed.”
Having already been linked with a comeback fight against Canada’s Bermane Stiverne, Haye added: “Committing to fights is something that I’m not in a position to do considering I can’t pick up a bag properly with my right arm.
“I’m in limbo at the moment. I don’t want to get everyone’s hopes up and say: ‘Yes I can fight’ only to let everyone down again. If it heals, then great, but I’ll cross that bridge when it comes to it.
“It feels like it’s improving everyday, slowly but surely I’m getting more movement back, which is always encouraging, but just taking a shirt off is still a nightmare. I’m nowhere near being able to throw a punch.”
Asked if retiring now would leave business unfinished in the ring, Haye replied: “When I set out as a kid, I said I wanted to be heavyweight champion of the world. I achieved that goal and en route to that I became undisputed cruiserweight world champion and won the European [cruiserweight] title as well. I achieved way more than what I set out to do.
“Hypothetically, if it was time to call it quits, I would be disappointed that it finished on such unfortunate terms, but in years to come people will forget about injury and just look at your record and who you beat.
“If I look at my record, I’m happy. I could have done better in certain instances but so could everyone. I always wanted to avenge my loss to Wladimir [Klitschko, in 2011]. That was always my agenda and Vitali [Klitschko] made a lot of noise about fighting me, but that never materialised for one reason or another.
“Other than that, there is no one I’d feel I’d gain anything from beating other than a pay cheque and to put some smiles back on fans’ faces.”
