David Haye has become the last retired boxer to see dollar signs in the run-up to a comeback, as the former two-weight world champion prepares to face entrepreneur Joe Fournier in a fight in eight rounds on September 11. The unusual scrap will take place at Staples Center in Los Angeles, under the card of another great retiree, Oscar De La Hoya, taking on UFC legend Vitor Belfort.

On paper, Fournier has a bigger boxing pedigree than the usual parade of YouTubers, other sports athletes and forgotten celebrities who have become a hallmark of the sport over the past two years. The 39-year-old lightweight has a 9-0 (all knockout) record and even appeared controversially in the WBA world rankings in 2016. As far as the quality of the opposition goes, however, his ledger doesn’t is not as impressive as it looks. . His opponents share a combined record of just 29 wins against 116 losses, while Fournier’s latest fight saw him score a second-round knockout against reggaeton musician Reykon, who was in his first professional fight.

This latter circus of the square circle is less due to Joe Fournier’s stature in boxing, and more because he happens to be a close friend of Haye. “The Billionaire Boxer” started on his opponent’s Hayemaker promotion list, and this mismatch came after a holiday debate over who would win a fight escalated into macho stance and posed challenge.

For Fournier, this is only the last chapter in a story worthy of a Hollywood movie. The Hammersmith businessman has been romantically linked to Paris Hilton and first appeared in celebrity circles as the personal trainer of names like Kim Kardashian, 50 Cent and Jay-Z. After selling his chain of gyms, he invested in a wide range of businesses including restaurants, fitness, nightclubs and art. While the billionaire’s claim that Fournier makes in his boxing nickname is disputed, he is said to have a net worth of $ 130 million in 2017.

Fournier launched his boxing career in 2015 with a stoppage of Jorge Burgos. Throughout 2015 and 2016, he managed to land a controversial world ranking seemingly through his activity alone. Even a positive drug test couldn’t derail a career that saw Fournier win the little-regarded WBA International title. Challenges to future world champion and Canelo’s opponent, Callum Smith, were thrown but were never answered, and Fournier appeared to lose interest. He was inactive from December 2016 until Reykon’s victory last April.

However, the current boxing landscape is very different from that of 2016. Five years ago, the idea of ​​an entrepreneur with a rather lukewarm boxing record in the face of the return of former heavyweight king David Haye would have been widely laughed at. But since then we’ve seen Floyd Mayweather receive obscene sums paid to spare Logan Paul slightly, Mike Tyson finding redemption measure in a nostalgic move with Roy Jones Jr., and a number of singers, social media stars and of underpaid MMA fighters passing the boxing ring. It is this environment that gives birth to a fight like David Haye vs Joe Fournier.

It’s important to note that far from the fun Mykonos story about making the fight and the Friends-turned-Rivals storyline that Haye also used to sell fights with Derek Chisora ​​and Audley Harrison, it’s not a competitive match. Fournier’s boxing experience is exclusively as a light-heavyweight, David Haye wins by more than two stones. That would be a tough hurdle for the brave entrepreneur to overcome, even if he fought someone with a similar record to his. Sadly, he fights one of the greatest British boxers of the past two decades. Don’t expect Joe Fournier to shock the world, but maybe expect him to add to his bloated bank account after the biggest fight of his career.