Haye-Klitschko: Wladimir Furious Over T-Shirt – News

By Boxing News - 04/16/2009 - Comments

wladimir2324422By Erik Schmidt: Once again, David Haye (22-1, 21 KOs) was able to push Wladimir Klitschko’s (52-3, 46 KOs) buttons, this time by wearing a t-shirt showing the decapitated heads of Wladimir and his brother Vitali at a press conference at the Veltins Arena, Gelsenkirchen, Germany. The t-shirt angered Wladimir, 33, who then promised to make Haye pay for his actions by knocking him out on June 20th. For his part, Haye looked positively overjoyed with Wladimir’s reaction as if David had planned on this happening ahead of time.

Personally speaking, it’s unfortunate that Wladimir so easily lets his emotions get out of control with the slightest little thing that Haye does. If Wladimir had the presence of mind he would see that Haye is counting on him losing his composure so that he can score points by coming across as the one that is cool, calm and collected in the press conferences.

This is obviously going to be repeated by Haye at future press conferences and because of Wladimir’s reaction, you might see Haye wearing shirt every time they meet from now on. What Wladimir needs to do is put the shoe on the other foot and get a t-shirt of his own with a similar photo, and above all, he needs to try to have fun with the meetings like his brother Vitali does.

It’s show business, not drama. Coming from the former Soviet Union where people often were taught to keep their emotions under control, it seems strange that Wladimir often reveals what he’s inwardly thinking. He’s too transparent for his own good and doesn’t see the larger picture of what’s actually going on. He either needs to shut down his exterior or if that’s not possible, try to show a lighter side like his brother.

As for Haye, he said all the usual things, such as that he’s going to knock Wladimir out, prove that he’s the best fighter in the world and earn his money by putting on a good fight and winning. Blah-blah-blah. It’s all ready old from Haye, and he seems like a broken record. Haye doesn’t change much from interview to interview.

The only thing that changed this time was the t-shirt, although this is a repeat of an earlier incident between Haye, Vitali and Wladimir in which Haye confronted the brothers in a meeting in a restaurant, showing a magazine to both of them which had a photo of him on the cover holding the severed heads of both brothers. Vitali got enraged and went after Haye, and there was a brief scuffle.

Wladimir was none too happy about it either. It seems rather childish to me, both the showing of the t-shirt and magazine and especially the reaction to it. Unless there’s some fear there hidden away inside Wladimir about possibly getting badly beaten by Haye, there’s no reason to be upset with it.

Wladimir needs to see it for what it is – Haye’s attempt to get any leverage he can in the fight by trying to get under the skin of Wladimir. So far, it’s worked as Haye has proven to be much better at the psychological gamesmanship in comparison to the apparently emotionally fragile Wladimir.

In losing his cool so often, Wladimir may not be aware that he’s revealing something about a possible fear of Haye. He needs to try and shut this down if possible.



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