Will Vitali Get a Shot at a Unification bout Against Haye or Valuev before Retiring?
September 29th, 2009
By Chris Williams: WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko has made it known that he wants to capture and unify the final heavyweight piece of the puzzle the World Boxing Association heavyweight title before he retires from the sport. Under ordinary circumstances, this would seem like a perfectly attainable goal, at least lining up a title bout against the current champion.
This would a bout that would make both him and the WBA champion a lot of money. Sadly, I doubt that Klitschko will ever get a shot at making this happen because David Haye will be challenging the 7-foot Nikolay Valuev on November 7th for the title, and most boxing experts are predicting that Haye will probably win this fight because of Valuev’s lack of speed and power, and because of his age.
In recent comments in which Haye mentioned the Klitschko brothers, he only brought up IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko and not Vitali. This leads me to suspect that Haye has no intention of fighting Vitali, possibly because he sees him as the tougher of the two brothers and seems to prefer Wladimir as an opponent instead.
Since both brothers would be bringing in the same amount of money for Haye, you would have to surmise that this would be a self preservation move by Haye in selecting the weaker-chinned Wladimir rather than the sturdier Vitali to fight.
This still could work out for Vitali if by chance that Haye were to knock Wladimir out. Vitali, whether he’s still fighting or not, could then move on and set up a revenge bout in which he avenges Wladimir’s loss. As you would guess, this is all speculation at this point because Haye hasn’t even fought Valuev yet.
For all we know, Valuev could come out the gates in the 1st round and KO Haye with the first clubbing punch that he throws in the fight. It’s not likely given Valuev’s recent history, but with the weak chin that Haye has, it’s within the realm of possibility. Haye is small for a heavyweight, weighing only 215. He might put on weight for the Valuev bout, but realistically, Haye will be no bigger than 230 for the fight.
He’ll still end up being outweighed by close to 100 pounds by Valuev. That’s a ton of weight for a shaky chinned former cruiserweight like Haye. But if Haye does come through with a win over Valuev, I think Vitali might well have to forget having any chance at a unification match with Haye.
If it’s going to happen, it will likely be left up to Vitali’s little brother Wladimir to be the one to try and unify the title. It would be great somehow if Haye were to knock Wladimir out so that Vitali could move in and try to recapture the titles by beating Haye.
Who knows? Haye might not be interested in fighting Vitali, despite the boxing public clamoring for the fight. Haye could turn his back on them and focus on fighting Wladimir in a rematch instead of risking everything against Vitali.
Tags: 8 Responses to “Will Vitali Get a Shot at a Unification bout Against Haye or Valuev before Retiring?”
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good piont ray! and yes they are being forced to see how good the 2 bros realy are, they are the best hw’s to ever step into the ring just ask lewis he pussed out on a rematch and had to have his moma come in and look Vitaly up and down and say to his son “son do not fight this easturn european God he will smash you this time” and so it was ,lenox said moma knows best and didnt give Vitaly the rematch.
No matter who is put in front of Vitaly it will not matter. Vitaly will ride into the sunset in a year or two without losing.
Either brother would destroy Valuev and Haye.
The only thing stopping this from happening is the promoters involved.
As for Haye seeing Vitali as the tougher opponent it doesnt really matter , Wladimir would beat him just as easily.
Are people finally starting to realise just how good the brothers are ????????
i am not convinced beating valuev is as easy as a lot of people think.this looks like a tall order for for david haye(no pun intended).however if david did knock this boheometh out i will be impressed.looking forward to this one
Are we not jumping ahead just a little. We have had the pleasure of watching 4 fights by the Klitschko brothers since Haye entered the HW division and none from Haye since, so why all the interest.Haye is about to fight a man already beaten by a man already beaten by Wladimir, that takes a little of the interest from me. Valuev will not be KO’d by Haye but could well lose on a decision simply by Haye going for a Jog round the ring. Not to exciting. Haye has said he intends to retire very soon, not to exciting, and has shown little interest in fighting Vitali, not to exciting. I expect Haye to one day meet Wladimir and expect him to be KO’d, not to exciting. I have absolutely no doubt that anybody in the running at the moment who meets Vitali will be beaten,not to exciting. I am very impressed by the Brothers not so the opposition Haye included. Not the fault of the Brothers, indeed not the fault of anybody just the way it is.
Once the Valuev fight is out of the way win or lose I would love to see Arreola and Haye get it on, and for me Arreola can do it by KO.
Haye wants to fight both he just doesnt want to fight for peanuts and in germany for K2 for the rest of his career.
I meant Haye would prefer Wladimir lol just read that comment back to myself oops!
Very interesting point and i agree that Haye would prefer Vitali.
But I think if Haye was WBA champ, the brothers would be able to agree on which one fights haye, and i think they would agree that Vitali gets the shot.
Wlad has the RING, IBF, WBO and IBO belts so I think he would gladly step aside and let his brother challenge for the WBA.
Besides, if Vitali does retire next year, Wlad would likely have another 3 or 4 years to pick up the WBC and WBA.