THE GRUDGE
WITH friends like David Haye, who needs enemies?
The last time two British fighters met for a major heavyweight belt there was a Shakespearian subplot. Audley Harrison had sparred Haye after he won the 2000 Olympics and Haye was a 19-year-old amateur.
“I was the boss and he was the student,” is how Harrison described their relationship, but when Harrison later reached out to Haye, he was ignored.
Harrison was looking for a way back after Belfast taxi driver Martin Rogan outhustled him over 10 rounds to inflict a fourth defeat in 27 fights. At the time, Haye’s company, Hayemaker Promotions, had a contract with broadcaster Setanta and Harrison approached his former sparring partner to see if there was a place for him on a show that was topped by Ryan Rhodes.
As Harrison remembered it, the reply was: “There’s no room for you,” adding: “He [Haye] didn’t even speak to me. He had Adam [Booth] speak to me, which was even more insulting.” Haye didn’t deny this version of events.
