Haye on the WBA belt for Fury vs Joshua: 'I feel the fighter's pain'
The WBA 'super' title is set to be on the line in Cardiff. Former world champion David Haye understands WBA champion Murat Gassiev's frustration – 'but that's the business'.
Archive image · Photo: Brian Minkoff-London Pixels / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped and resized)
When Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua meet at Cardiff's Principality Stadium on December 11, promoters Frank Warren and Eddie Hearn say the vacant WBA 'super' heavyweight title will be at stake. According to Boxing News, the WBA itself has not yet confirmed this. The winner would become a three-time world champion.
The man who loses out is Murat Gassiev. The Russian took the regular WBA title from Kubrat Pulev last December and, after Oleksandr Usyk vacated his belts in June, was effectively the WBA champion. With the new belt he would drop back to 'regular' champion. "It would be very frustrating," David Haye told talkSPORT, adding that when another title is created, "it must feel like it devalues what you have."
"I feel the fighter's pain, but that's the business," said Haye, who became WBA heavyweight champion in 2009 with a majority decision over Nikolai Valuev. "That's just how boxing has always been."