Haye vs. Vitali In September? – Boxing News

By Chris Williams: David Haye and his manager Adam Booth are now looking at the possibility of fighting World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko in September rather than IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko. Booth said to the Daily Star that a fight with Vitali Klitschko is an option, because Wladimir will likely be busy fighting his IBF mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin in September and won’t be free for a bout with Haye.

It looks as if Haye doesn’t relish the idea of working his way into title position like some boxing experts had speculated that he might be forced to do after Haye pulled out of his June 20th bout with Wladimir due to a back injury.

Haye had been asking for a three week postponement from that date and wanted Wladimir to wait until July 11th to fight him. Wladimir, however, wasn’t going for that option and instead wanted to play it safe by finding a replacement opponent.

Lucky for Wladimir, he found the perfect fighter in WBA champion in recess Ruslan Chagaev, who just happened to be free because he had failed the pre-fight medical test last weekend for his title bout against WBA heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev. Although Wladimir would prefer to fight Haye, he didn’t want to take the chance that Haye would possibly not be ready to fight by July 11th.

For Haye to get a fight with Vitali in September, it will require that the WBC allow Vitali skip fighting his number #1 mandatory challenger Oleg Maskaev, which the WBC want him Vitali to fight next. It’s unknown whether Vitali will be able to get out from meeting this challenger, so there’s a good chance that Haye might have to look elsewhere for an opponent like Chris Arreola.

Obviously, a fight with Vitali would be the much better option because at least Haye would be getting a good payday in that fight. Also, if the untested Haye is beaten by Arreola then David’s hopes of big money bouts against either of the Klitschko brothers are up in flames.

No one really knows what Haye is capable of as a heavyweight, because he’s failed to fight a quality heavyweight in the two times he’s fought in the division. However, he didn’t look all that impressive in his fight with journeyman Monte Barrett last year in November.

Haye could wait around for a bout with Wladimir, but that’s probably not a realistic option because Wladimir may defend his WBO heavyweight title after the Povetkin bout, which would keep Wladimir busy until the middle of 2010 or so. Haye can’t afford to wait that long and will need to keep fighting to remain sharp.

If Haye can land a bout with Vitali, it would be a tough fight for Haye, because he doesn’t match up as well with the sturdy-chinned Vitali compared to a fight with Wladimir, who has a much weaker chin than his brother. Haye would have little if any chance of beating Vitali, but then again not too many people were giving Haye much of a chance against Wladimir either.

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