David Haye knocks out Mark de Mori in first round to claim top billing in chaotic heavyweight division

'It’s not the money, it’s the desire with me and I have some unfinished business'

Poor Mark de Mori was in the wrong ring on Saturday night when he lost in less than 180 seconds to David Haye at the O2 Arena in London.

In New York a couple of hours later, a fighter with thinner credentials than De Mori won the vacant IBF heavyweight title on a night that set the chaotic agenda for a year of mayhem in the division.

Haye looked heavy and powerful as he predictably stalked and then knocked out a reluctant and outclassed De Mori in the opening round in what has to be considered a fantastic return to the ring after three and half years on the celebrity circuit.

“I would fight for free,” claimed Haye in the joyous clamour after the destructive ending. “It’s not the money, it’s the desire with me and I have some unfinished business: Tyson Fury does not want to fight me and that leaves Anthony Joshua.” Haye is an expert at ending a fight and selling the next one.

It took Haye, now 35 and 17 pounds heavier than he was in his last fight, 30 seconds to find his range, adjust his feet and connect through the gaps; De Mori never landed a punch before a sickening right hand and short left uppercut sent him into boxing dreamland.

In New York, at the Barclays Centre in Brooklyn, two world heavyweight fights took place and the hapless De Mori, who before Haye had lost just once in 33 fights, would have been in either scrap.

In December, the IBF, a sanctioning body that is based in New Jersey and has a history of utter scandal, decided to strip Fury of their belt and match the undefeated, untested and unknown duo of Charles Martin and Vyacheslav Glazkov for their vacant title.

Fury was ringside and talking to people when Martin connected with a short southpaw right hook to send Glazkov down in round three of a very poor fight. Glazkov beat the count, limped to his corner and surrendered. He had injured his right knee but the brutal truth is that he had not shown a single thing at any point in the fight to justify his purse of $524,000.

“I hit him on the glove and I broke his knee – that’s power,” joked Martin, who was paid just $250,000.

There was, however, genuine power in the other heavyweight title fight when Deontay Wilder retained his WBC belt with a chilling knockout of Artur Szpilka in round nine. The Polish émigré had caused Wilder, who has stopped 35 of his 36 opponents, a lot of problems before tiring, dropping his hands and leaving himself vulnerable.

Fury left his seat to confront Wilder in the ring; they called each other “bum”, “phoney” and promised to fight the other in his “backyard”. It was a wonderful end to a long night of heavyweight boxing and listening to the glorious squabbling it was easy to forget that a few hours earlier Haye had ended his exile in style. Haye is back and that is now the heavyweight division’s main story.