THIS time itโs different. After more than three years out of action, David Haye announced his comeback today โ heโll box Mark De Mori at the O2 in London on January 23.
He famously has missed out on fights due to injury, withdrawing twice from bouts with Tyson Fury and his career was thrown into doubt after he needed shoulder reconstruction. But heโs adamant that now he will box three times a year.
Rather than a traditional boxing promoter, he will work with an entertainment, media and marketing company, Salter Brothers Entertainment, which has run far reaching social media and digital campaigns.
โIโve always done it my own way,โ Haye told Boxing News. โThese young guys [Andrew and Simon Salter] wanted to make a difference. As a friend of theirs for a while Iโve been looking at what theyโve done and been mesmerized by the way they do business and the people they reach and I thought how could you use this algorithm on boxing? They donโt see any reason why it wouldnโt work. They put a proposal to me once they realized I was interested in what they did and it made perfect sense to me and it all starts on January 16 and youโll see the differences between how they do business and traditional boxing promoters.
โYouโll see the dynamics that happen over the coming weeks and that this particular fight with De Mori gets. Iโve had similar fights in the past. Itโll be interesting to look at the numbers, viewing figures-wise, internet-wise, the internet reach the television reach. Theyโre working on different stuff. A lot of futuristic stuff which Iโve never seen in boxing before, which will be announced in the coming weeks.โ
A broadcaster is yet to be announced but David insisted, โItโs the start of something great. Iโm just looking forward to getting in there and doing what I do best.โ
The Salter brothers are not licensed to promote by the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBoC), though they could work with Hayemaker Promotions. โThis is their department, Iโm going to co-promote. That was always one stipulation, I wanted to have a hand in everything that was going on. In case they tried to go off the rails and do something that was so far from what boxing is, I could say rein it in. So far everythingโs in check. Theyโve got a whole team of lawyers and boxing experts that theyโve hired for this phase. Theyโre going to be announcing all of the details for all of the promotional side of things in the coming weeks. Today was just to announce the opponent and the venue and my comeback to boxing,โ David continued, who hasnโt yet got a BBBoC licence to box.
He is determined to be active next year. โMy main ambition is to fight as often as possible. I havenโt fought three times in a year for many, many moons. I want to fight three times a year. I want to fight that often. Iโm looking at other dates and other venues. Itโs exciting,โ he said. โIโm in a physical state where I can fight more often. In the past Iโve had to take big lay-off because of the injuries that I was holding in training before the fight and I needed two or three months just to recover. Thatโs not the case any longer, thank God.โ