Haye Upset With Three-Fight Contract with Klitschko Brothers – News

By Boxing News - 04/05/2009 - Comments

haye459922351By Eric Thomas: Former cruiserweight champion David Haye (22-1, 21 KOs) made a deal with the devil when he signed to fight International Boxing Federation (IBF), World Boxing Organization (WBO) heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (52-3, 46 KOs) on June 20th in Germany.

According to Setanta Sports, Haye signed a three fight contact with the Klitschko brother management team should he defeat Wladimir on June 20th, meaning that Haye, 28, would effectively be tied up fighting one Klitschko brother after another for possibly a year and half if Haye were to beat Wladimir in the initial match as well as a rematch six months later.

According to Haye, he had to sign away his next three fights in order to seal the deal with Wladimir Klitschko. If Haye defeats Wladimir in a rematch, next up would be Vitali Klitschko, the current World Boxing Council heavyweight champion who also wants a crack at Haye. “I’ve got to fight three Klitschkos,” Haye said to Setanta Sports.

Haye says that the initial contract was even worse than the one that he eventually signed, saying that it showed how much “wusses they are.” Although Haye didn’t give any details about the other contract, if it’s indeed worse than the one he signed, then it must have been really bad.

Haye found the contracts off-putting, making him believe that the Klitschko brothers lack confidence in themselves if they need “stupid contracts” like the one they presented.

Despite signing the contract, Haye doesn’t believe that he’ll be fighting a third fight with the Klitschko brothers, remarking that after beating Wladimir and Vitali, neither of them will want to fight him again. In that case, Haye feels that the Klitschkos would have to bring out their uncle if they want to continue to have someone in the family to fight him.

One person who might suffer badly if Haye comes out the winner on June 30th is IBF mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin, who already has been waiting for a shot at Wladimir’s IBF title since defeating Chris Byrd in 2008. Povetkin hurt his ankle in December, which destroyed a chance at getting his shot against Wladimir.

If Haye defeats Wladimir, and then beats him again in a rematch six months later, Povetkin would still have to wait longer for Haye to face Vitali, and then another fight beyond that.

As much as Haye might be frustrated with having to sign the three-fight contract in order to get a shot at Wladimir, Haye could have refused to sign it and walked away. It’s his fault for signing it, because no one forced him to accept the contract. Either he could have called Wladmir’s bluff and said he wouldn’t sign it, or he could have just walked out of the negotiation process completely and looked in another direction.

The problem with that is it would mean that Haye would effective have to work his way into a title shot against Klitschko by probably fighting someone like Alexander Dimitrenko, the 6’7” number #1 ranked WBO heavyweight. I’m sure that Haye is very confident of his boxing skills and power, but that fight could turn out to be a disaster for Haye.

Dimitrenko is huge, hits plenty hard and knows how to use his height and reach against shorter opponents like Haye. Chances are, Dimitrenko might beat Haye, which would force Haye to have to work hard and long to get another shot at a big time fight like the ones that the Klitschko brothers present to him.

I’m sure that they probably pointed this out to Haye as well, which is probably why he grit his teeth and signed it. Haye could fight in the heavyweight division for a long time before he runs into heavyweights as popular as the Klitschkos.

There’s probably out there somewhere, someone that hasn’t turned pro yet, but with Haye saying he wants to retire from boxing by the age of 30, he can’t afford to wait around.



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