The former WBA champion is the same height as Australia’s De Mori (30-1-2-KO26), who weighed in at 17st 5lbs 8oz ahead of his first fight on United Kingdom soil.
With the heavyweight division having been blown apart by the Wladimir Klitschko’s defeat to Tyson Fury, David Haye could not have chosen a better time to stage a return to boxing after three-and-a-half years in the wilderness.
The former heavyweight champion barely broke a sweat on his way to the win, and fans were suitably impressed.
His limited opponent, among the least threatening of Haye’s professional career, had already wildly missed and taken several punches, and unsurprisingly was unable to take his power – like 24 others before him. Only 125 seconds were required for him to fell the hapless and hopeless Mark de Mori with a blizzard of punches, winning his comeback fight with a first-round knockout.
However, the only added benefit (which isn’t much) is the ability to turn and look at the audience; you can’t get very close to the action. More people know who Anthony Joshua is and more people know who I am, so that fight … that for me right now I believe is the biggest fight. De Mori is talking about cashing out with this fight, and that sets my bat radar off big time.
Haye claims he can knock out Anthony Joshua and curtail the London Olympic gold medallist’s stunning rise through the ranks.
“Tyson Fury is pretty clear about not wanting to fight me”, Haye said when asked about his domestic rival and the WBA and WBC heavyweight champion immediately after the bout. I need to live here. That’s the type of fight I want, that’s why I’m back in boxing. This win could scarcely have been more emphatic and a stadium fight against Joshua may loom in the future.
Forty-two months away from the sport via surgery and reality television will surely have taken its toll on Haye, who has given himself a genuine warm-up fight before taking on greater challengers.
Since then, however, because of injuries he has withdrawn from two scheduled fights with Fury and another with Manuel Charr, most recently in November 2013 because of a shoulder condition that threatened his career. I’m not easy to hit, so how would someone go about beating that? I am going to make a serious run at this division. “It will take someone like me to clean it up”.