Klitschko V Haye is a disgrace: Who is Responsible?

By Jordan Taylor: It was confirmed on Friday that Wladimir Klitschko would now be fighting Ruslan Chagaev instead of David Haye who injured his back whilst at his training camp in Cyprus. Initially a date of July 11th was touted about, as he would need 3 weeks to get back to full fitness, maybe even a week later so HBO could do a massive double header on both sides of the Atlantic.

Timing wise, it would be a little awkward, but us Boxing fans are used to staying up at silly hours to catch the action, it would have been a great night of Boxing, maybe even ‘Haye New Heavyweight Champion of the World/Mayweather is Back and Gunning for Pac’. Unfortunately the parties could not agree, and yet again, the paying fan has been shafted.

A few points need to be bought up about this, and I would hope we could even get some answers from the people at Setanta and Co. An estimated 25, 000 fans from the UK had booked tickets, hotels and the like to watch this fight, most of them will not be remunerated and will end up watching another boring Eastern European slugfest.

I am sorry if I have generalized here, I try not to commit this sin too much, but seriously, Klitschko V Haye would have been a great fight. It’s got good publicity, the US were genuinely interested, and it’s the first time in a while we have had decent mainstream exposure.

Are those 25, 000 fans going to get their money’s worth now? Who will watch the Fight on TV? I am not taking anything away from Wladimir, he is a skillful, talented fighter, who I thought maybe would have been forced to open his style up a bit more with Haye, but Ruslan is a mediocre Heavyweight who lacks what many aspects we expected to see.

We were going to get a genuinely intriguing match-up, a solid and young cruiserweight who brings a good pedigree, (with the exception of the Carl Thompson fight, which was a major slip up, but a positive corner turned, and a harsh lesson learnt), a solid record in his weight division, with impressive performances over Jean-Mark Mormeck, Giacobbe Fragomeni and Enzo Maccarinelli.

People may slate Haye’s outings in the Heavyweight division with wins over Monte Barrett and Tomasz Bonin; both were branded poor opposition, and that view was enforced by Hayes annihilation of both fighters, albeit with a few slip ups on route to his win over Barrett. Hayes got a Glass chin, we know it, he knows it, hell even those dolly birds who pose over his myspace page and fly his flag know it. But that’s what’s exciting!

I have utmost respect for both fighters. Wlad is a classy operator, who in my eyes is stuck in a poor division but would stand high in the ratings should he of been born 10 years earlier. That is a big thing to say, but I admire his engine, his ability to adapt when in the ring, his determination and his Jab is second to none.

He is a good Heavyweight who takes a lot of flak. Haye is a unique fighter who brings both glamour and trash to the fight game. He is supremely confident, he is cocky, he is a good looking chap, he has superb footwork and overall speed for a Heavyweight, and is explosive to watch in the ring.

Sure I can see why people take a disliking to him, that’s other people’s prerogatives, but this fight needed to be made. It’s exciting; it’s a fight where anything can happen. All of those questions we pose week in, week out on this site will not be answered now.

I am 100% confident that Wladimir will take care of Chagaev quite easily. I can see a KO in rounds 6-8, but I am not a betting man, and I am certainly not famed for my tips. Wlad will keep his belts, Ruslan’s place in the Ring ratings will be consolidated and we will wait another 6 months before Wlad fights again.

So where does David Haye go now? If I were him, I would feel severely let down, along with the tens of thousands of fans who were going to Germany or who were planning to watch the fight on Setanta. There have been a lot of rumors circulating the internet as to how this all came about.

Clearly the injury is genuine as it has been made public. It’s a minor back injury which needs 3 weeks to heal, and maybe 1-2 extra weeks for intensive training. Now, you have to look at this from both camps, but ultimately, I want this to be through the fans eyes.

Klitschko’s camp said they could not wait, they could not guarantee he wouldn’t be injured again and also that HBO could not accommodate the show slated for 11/18th July. A lot of credible sources in the industry are claiming that a double header could have been made, but Klitschko’s camp were not interested. In fact, it would appear that they had no intention of waiting for Haye; they had the fight with Chagaev confirmed only 4 days after the confirmation of the injury.

The aim of this post is to try and clear some of this up as there are conflicting stories coming out of all areas, and it just does not seem good enough. Again, Setanta seem to be playing a big part in this. Everyone knows of their dire financial situation at present. If you have not caught up yet, just check your planner for the next two weeks and you will see a solitary re-run of Cotto V Clottey on Sunday 14th June.

The so called ‘home of boxing’ in the UK. I heard they have Marco Huck’s next 3 fights though. ‘Can Setanta Pay Haye?’ is what the internet chat rooms are saying; Is this a credible rumor? If not then we have to seriously ask why Wladimir’s Team have arranged this awful fight.

Why could this fight not be re-staged in July? As a fan, I have tried to read as many ‘pure’ stories as possible, but everything is conflicting. I am not embarrassed to say I do not know how the fighters contracts work, but I was on the understanding it was a 3 fight contract, so surely, Wlad should have waited for Haye to recover from his minor injury? There must be some sort of clause in there.

From a neutral point of view, I have come up with 2 reasons as too why this fight has been canned. One is that Wlad does not want to fight Haye. I am not saying it’s through lack of guts, because that is a bit farfetched, but maybe the distasteful PR Haye generated during pre-fight could have made Wlad sit there and say no to the fight? I think it is merely payback for Haye.

He will not get a shot at Klitschko until end of the year at best. The likelihood is he will fight Vitali. I feel extremely aggrieved about this. It’s the Boxing Fan who suffers again. Setanta are taking in nearly £10 million every month from people who bought into their Boxing packages.

They basically got the tail end of Calzaghe’s career, picked up Haye and now realize they do not possess the infrastructure or money to pay for world class shows. Users on this site had to beg for Juan Manuel Marquez V Juan Diaz to be sown, it is not on! This post will probably relate to UK fans of Haye, I am not too sure of his popularity overseas, but there should be some sort of explanation as to why this fight is not getting staged, it’s a travesty.

If there are any readers who would like to post their views, the please feel free. I do feel there is significant reason for the canceling of this massive fight; I just want to know whether it was the TV Companies, Klitschko’s Ego or just the Germans in general.

17 Responses to “Klitschko V Haye is a disgrace: Who is Responsible?”