David Haye’s first fight in three-and-a-half years takes place at a time when British heavyweight boxing has never been in such rude health.

During his long absence Tyson Fury has ascended to the status of “the man” in world heavyweight boxing, finally ending the long reign of the Klitschkos to assume the mantle of world heavyweight champion, while former Olympic champion Anthony Joshua has emerged in just three years as a viable contender for world heavyweight honours.

Hovering beneath them Dereck Chisora is still in action, having recently left Frank Warren’s promotional and managerial stable to join forces with Team Sauerland in Germany while Dillian Whyte, the man who recently put Joshua through his toughest test to date, is also a handful.

Meanwhile, across the pond Deontay Wilder holds the WBC belt, while there is increasing hype around the unbeaten KO machine that is New Zealand’s Joseph Parker.

Add to the mix unbeaten Cuban heavyweight Luis Ortiz, Bulgaria’s Kubret Pulev, Vyacheslav Glazkov of Ukraine and not forgetting the comeback later this year of that other Ukrainian, Wladimir Klitschko, in his rematch with Fury, and heavyweight boxing both home and abroad looks more interesting than it has in over a decade.

Haye, who’s chosen a complete unknown in the shape of Mark De Mori of Australia as his first opponent in his comeback, maintains that money is not his primary motive for climbing back into a boxing ring.

However, reports of business ventures in Dubai hitting the buffers and financial difficulties engulfing the former cruiserweight and heavyweight world champion make this difficult to believe.

The man from Bermondsey is no mug. From an early point in his career he’s demonstrated an acute sense of business acumen combined with a heavy dose of self-preservation, navigating the stormy seas of elite-level pro boxing with an eye on getting out with a healthy bank balance and his marbles intact.

Nobody could blame him either, especially not when at “just” 6'3" the 35-year-old is a midget in a land of heavyweight giants, giving away in some cases up to two stone in bodyweight to his opponents.

Though nobody expects his first fight back to be anything other than a glorified sparring session, it will be interesting to see how he looks since teaming up with new trainer Shane McGuigan.

If he’s managed to retain the speed and reflexes that were always his main attributes and hallmark, we can look forward to a future battle with Joshua and, from there, who knows?

Stranger things have happened.

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You can’t keep Rocky Balboa down. The latest instalment in the unending story of boxing’s most enduring cinematic character has just arrived in a cinema near you to mostly rave reviews.

There’s even talk of Sylvester Stallone, who just picked up a Golden Globe for best supporting actor in the movie, bagging an Oscar.

Also in the movie are supporting roles for Andre Ward and Britain’s own Tony Bellew as “Pretty” Ricky Conlan, the movie’s antagonist.

In the role of the lead, playing the son of Rocky’s first and most famous rival Apollo Creed, we have Michael B Jordan of The Wire fame.

While it doesn’t take a genius to work out the plot of the movie, it’s hard to deny its pull regardless.

The previous instalment, Rocky Balboa, saw the franchise return to its original gritty roots to great effect.

Whatever anybody might think of Sly Stallone and some of the right-wing vigilante sewage he’s long been associated with, Rocky is a character with true appeal.

The story of the creation of the character and how the first movie was made all the way back in 1976 is more dramatic than any of the movies that have been made since.

Stallone in those days was living in poverty as a struggling actor in Hollywood. He came up with the idea of Rocky after watching heavyweight journeyman Chuck Wepner taking Muhammad Ali 15 rounds in 1975.

Not long after completing the script, at an audition for a role in a different movie being produced by Irwin Winkler, and on his way out of the room, Stallone mentioned that he’d just written a script for a boxing movie.

Winkler asked to see it and from there the legend grew.

Originally, Winkler and the studios wanted a major star for the role of Rocky, offering Stallone more and more money for the script with the intention of crediting him as the writer.

But the actor stuck to his guns, knowing that in this character lay his chance for the success and stardom he craved. In the end, with Winkler behind him, he got his shot and took it.

It’s a great story, one that affirms the myth of the American dream, a myth that also explains the enduring legacy of the Rocky movies.

The US and much of the world wants, needs to believe that anyone, no matter their background or obstacles in the way, can “make it” in life.

Boxing is a sport that lends itself to this myth, the idea that in an equal contest between two men playing by the same rules courage, endurance and tenacity can overcome.

Stallone, undoubtedly talented and smart in how he’s shaped his movie career and image, was the one in a million whose Hollywood lottery ticket came up and ever since he’s been a poster boy for everything supposedly good about the land of the free.

He is also by the way an Everton fan, which just goes to show that life truly is stranger than fiction.