Evander Holyfield on David Haye: "We're different." True enough.

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Though he and David Haye are both ex-cruiserweight champions who moved up in a quest for heavyweight money and glory, former world heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield doesn't see many similarities. Holyfield spoke with BBC Sport about Haye and his November 7 fight with Nikolai Valuev:

"We're different, I didn't have one fight and then get my opportunity," Holyfield told BBC Sport. "I moved up in 1988 and had six fights in two years before I was finally ranked number one and got the opportunity to fight the winner of Mike Tyson-Buster Douglas. When people try to compare David Haye to me, I say, 'wait a minute, I fought six heavyweights and beat them, they didn't make me number one contender straightaway'. I fought my way in to prove I could win the heavyweight title. I fought more as a heavyweight than I did in any other division.

"David Haye only fought one fight, and it will only tell you how good he is by how well he does in the fight against Valuev. He's a very skillful fighter, but he's moving up to the heavyweight division and he's fighting against a giant, a guy who's 100lb heavier and has a huge reach advantage."

Valuev will have seven inches of reach on Haye, but Valuev doesn't really know how to use his reach so that's probably a moot point. He didn't use it worth a damn against Evander last December, and David Haye is without question a more explosive, quicker fighter than the Evander Holyfield of 2008. But he's not the only one who feels Haye is "undeserving," though I kind of question this. Did Joe Calzaghe bust his hump at 175? No, he shot in and fought Bernard Hopkins from the get-go. It happens. You know what makes it happen? Money, and Haye is worth a lot more of it right now than most heavyweights, certainly more than John Ruiz, and Ruiz was the only other opponent Valuev was going to get.

Evander also refuses to stop living in his feverish dream world:

"I'll be fighting in November and hopefully in February or March I'll be fighting for a world title," said Holyfield. "It's not a dream, it's a reality, it just hasn't happened yet. If I become world champion I won't fight him [Haye], but if he gets the belt first I will. I just need to go and do what I need to do and then I can sit down, and everyone can be happy, because obviously nobody's happy with me standing up. I'm just saying, why don't you let me fight for the title! And in February or March, there's a good chance that might happen."

The answer to his question, "Why don't you let me fight for the title?" is painfully simple and obvious to everyone but Holyfield. He generates no money unless you stick the Valuev-Holyfield freak show in Switzerland, where they don't get "major sporting events" like this often, and he's also 46 years old and no longer qualified. It's not a riddle and it's not a conspiracy.