Haye: Usyk-Chisora Not Looking Likely For A While; Need Crowd For That Fight

David Haye would prefer to express some optimism regarding rescheduling the Oleksandr Usyk-Dereck Chisora fight.

Chisora’s manager just can’t see it happening anytime soon. Haye hasn’t discussed a potential date with promoter Eddie Hearn because they’ll need a crowd to attend the Usyk-Chisora card, which won’t be allowed in England for the foreseeable future.

“At the moment, there’s no date,” Haye told IFL TV in an interview posted recently to its YouTube channel. “To stage a big pay-per-view event, you need, you know, for it to work, you need a crowd, you need significant gate revenue to cover the undercard, all the expenses that a big show comes with. So, there needs to be a way to somehow get a crowd. And at the moment, it’s not looking likely for a while. It’s very frustrating.”

Ukraine’s Usyk (17-0, 13 KOs) and England’s Chisora (32-9, 23 KOs) were supposed to meet May 23 in a 12-round heavyweight fight at O2 Arena in London. Usyk-Chisora would’ve been the main event of a Sky Sports Box Office pay-per-view show.

This long, COVID-19-related delay has been frustrating for Chisora, but he hopes to receive some positive news in the coming weeks in reference to rescheduling his fight with Usyk.

“It’s been frustrating for everybody, man,” Chisora said. “You know, the fighters and everybody else. Yeah, it’s been. But it is what it is. I can’t complain about it. It didn’t only happen to me. It happened to everybody in the world. Loads of people have missed out on pay, aren’t getting paid. People got fired. So, I’m just like really looking forward to what happens in the next couple weeks, you know, including everything else in sports and what they government says.”

The 33-year-old Usyk, a former undisputed cruiserweight champion, is the WBO’s mandatory challenger for one of Anthony Joshua’s four heavyweight titles. The 36-year-old Chisora has nine losses, but he is widely viewed as a much more dangerous opponent than Chazz Witherspoon, whom Usyk stopped after seven mostly one-sided rounds October 12 in Chicago.

Usyk’s victory over Witherspoon (38-4, 29 KOs) marked his first fight at heavyweight after giving up the IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO cruiserweight titles.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.