David Haye and Klitschko, box office hit in the making
David Haye is one of the most successful boxers to come out of United Kingdom after Lennox Lewis. Haye is someone, who impressed as a cruiserweight when he turned professional in 2001.
After soaring up the rankings in the next couple of years in 2004 he made a failed attempt to capture the IBO cruiserweight title. After impressing for a further couple of years, Haye challenged Jean-Marc Mormeck for the WBC and WBA cruiserweight titles
in 2007.
He won by technical knockout (TKO) and emerged as a genuine title contender. In 2008, after impressively defending his cruiserweight titles against Maccarinelli (another British boxer), Haye announced he was moving to the Heavyweight division.
His first fight as a Heavyweight was back in 2006 when he had beaten the Number 11 ranked polish boxer Tomasz Bonin but he switched back to the Cruiserweight division after the fight. This time he was to stay as a Heavyweight.
When Haye beat Monte Barret in late 2008, there was news that the Klitschko brothers wanted him. This was confirmed by the Vitali in a news conference that he would take on Haye for his WBC Heavyweight title. The date and venue were going to be 20th
June 2009 in Stamford Bridge London. What followed was dramatic to say the least. As fans waited patiently for the match, it was declared that the fight would be between Vitali’s younger brother Wladimir and Haye.
The fight was shifted to Germany but the date was to remain unchanged. In the end, to the disappointment of fans around the globe, Haye pulled out citing a back injury as the main problem.
Since then Haye has been crowned as the WBA Heavyweight Champion. He beat Nikoley Valuev in a match dubbed as ‘David and Goliath’ due to the size difference of the two fighters. Yet Haye more than made up for it with speed and agility.
The world title meant two things, firstly Haye was a very good fighter secondly everyone wanted Haye vs Klitschko. This also silenced the Klitschko brothers for a while as after Haye’s withdrawal from their initial fight they had repeatedly announced that
Haye had chickened out. Haye was in no hurry to face either of the brothers and hence he chose to fight the American John Ruiz.
After beating Ruiz by TKO in the ninth round, it was Haye’s turn to get in the Klitschko brother’s minds. Haye immediately said he wanted both the Klitschko brothers and belittled their recent challengers Eddie Chambers and Chris Arreola saying these fights
were a disgrace to boxing. He also claimed that the Klitschko brothers were to blame for the Klitschko vs Haye fight not taking place. Haye decided to fight Harrison for the time being and knocked him out in two rounds.
Since then the Klitschko brothers have agreed to Haye’s demand of a 50-50 pot. This was confirmed by their manager Bernd Bonte. He also claimed that Haye vs the Brothers would be a very big match, he went as far as to say that this would be “even bigger
than Pacquiao-Mayweather”.
Bonte cleared that although Haye was ready to split the pot but he wanted to keep his pay per view television money to himself which would make it a virtually 70-30 split in Haye’s favour. This was not acceptable to the brothers.
There is no doubt that the fight is going to be huge if either of the brothers faces Haye. The money involved will also be huge as Haye is a top fighter and the Klitschko brothers have been the cash cows of Heavyweight boxing for the last few years. The
fans can only wait and hope that the fight takes place before the end of next year, otherwise it might never happen as Haye claims he wants to retire next year.
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