5 months is a long time.

I've been speaking to a few friends (yes I have some!) and they were all saying how strange it is that 5 months later, Haye will finally lace up his gloves to take on Fury. From a promotional perspective this is poor, the fight had generated a lot of background and interest from the casual through to the avid fan, so to leave it so long for a fight which in the grand scheme of things means next to nothing in the wider boxing picture is terrible.

Fury, for his faults as a terrible boxer (and he is awful for a professional) and his abhorrent media facing personality has just gained a huge following. Myself included. I do not like him when he's talking to YouTube, I don't like when he gives interviews to Sky Sports, but he comes across as a very nice guy when he appears on 606v2, so I don't know what to take away. He could actually lose in February and still come through with a huge amount of credibility for the fact that this is a fight he should be keeping away from. Haye is a vastly superior boxer (just as abhorrent as a person however) and will eat him alive in my opinion. I don't want him to any more. Haye is bad for fans and bad for boxing. He has not fought in 2013. He has cancelled twice, leaving fans out of pocket. He's got a history of it - so what requires 5 months? Cuts of that magnitude heal within 1 month, the tissue regenerates at a lower level after 6 weeks. So why isn't this fight being rescheduled for November? Adonis Stevenson and Tavoris Cloud fight this weekend. The winner will fight again in November. Thats 2 fights in 3 months. Why can't Haye do that? Why is he waiting for 5 months?

tl;dr I don't like Haye, I never did really but this has irritated me. Furys stock has risen given that he's still wanting to fight Haye and that he's not backing out. He may be limited and a nasty character but he has heart. He should say to Haye, fight me in November or I'm going after Vitali.

So, your opinions on the rematch being in 5 months rather than 2?

I think the whole promotion has been pretty tame. Don't get me wrong, there is interest, but that's purely down to the fighters and not Booth and Hennessey promotions

Hes getting 5 million quid for fighting Haye. Thats the main reason the fight is happening. Fury wouldnt risk that being frittered away. After a token spit of the dummy at the delay he quickly realised 5million was worth the delay. Vitali Klitschko doesnt seem to box anymore. He is semi retired.

That doesn't answer why 5 months and not 2 months.

December and Jan were probably ruled out because PPV buys would likely be lower. There's also the issue of venue availability, and coming to an agreement with Sky.

Froch Groves is in November, two PPV's in a month is not viable.

January is just a bad month all around and earlier that is probably cutting it too close pardon the pun.

Jabby; there's a whole host of things to consider. Venue, television networks (US as well as UK), will the injury be sufficiently healed in November (Haye needs to be training again), Christmas (ffs) and the usual downturn in spending during January.