Haye doesn’t want to fight the Klitschko brothers in front of “boring Germans”

By Scott Gilfoid: World Boxing Association heavyweight champion David Haye (23-1, 21 KO’s) is doing what he always does when the Klitschko brothers are about to fight, he’s nailing them with criticism. In this case, Haye has come out of the woodwork all of a sudden to question IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, who is fighting tomorrow night in Dusseldorf, Germany, against Eddie Chambers. In an article at the Guardian, Haye says “I’d like to fight them [the Klitschko brothers] in the UK, because everyone knows the German boxing atmosphere is crap. It’s just dull. I’d hate to have one of my defining fights in front of a bunch of boring Germans.”

It’s too bad that Haye probably won’t have much choice in the matter about the location of where he fights the Klitschko brothers, if he ever fights them at all. Both of the Klitschko brothers are much more established heavyweights, have held their titles for longer than Haye and are considered better fighters than the smallish 217 pound Haye. As such, if Haye wants to fight them, rather than just name drop all the time to get attention in the media, he’s going to have to travel to Germany and fight them. Goodness knows, Haye already had a chance to fight both of them and failed to make it to the ring with them for one reason or another. At this point, it would be nice if Haye could at least go all the way through and fight them.

Recently, Wladimir said that Haye has a “glass jaw” and said he believed that Eddie Chambers is a better fighter than Haye. Not to take this without firing back, Haye said “Come on, how many times has he [Wladimir] been knocked out? I’ve never been on the floor for more than eight seconds in my whole life. Ask him the same question.”

Wladimir has been stopped on three separate occasions during his career, whereas Haye has been stopped only once. However, in the one fight that Haye was taken out in, a 5th round stoppage loss to Carl Thompson in 2004, Haye’s corner threw in the towel while Haye was taking punishment in the corner. Had they left Haye continue to absorb big blows from the 40-year-old Thompson for the remainder of the round, I think there would have been an excellent chance that the exhausted and hurt looking Haye would have hit the canvas and stayed there for a long time.

Haye’s opposition hasn’t been all that tough during his eight year pro career in terms of facing big punchers. As a heavyweight, Haye has faced nothing but soft hitting heavyweights in his three fights. You can’t call Nikolay Valuev, Monte Barrett or Tomasz Bonin big punchers, and those are the heavyweights that Haye has fought in his career. As a cruiserweight, the biggest punchers that Haye has faced are Jean Marc Mormeck and Enzo Maccarinelli. That’s it. The rest of Haye’s opponents at cruiserweight have been soft hitting cruiserweights, and Mormeck and Maccarinelli are flawed fighters. Haye would likely been knocked out multiple times had he faced the likes of Corrie Sanders, Lamon Brewster, Ross Puritty, Hasim Rahman, Tony Thompson, and Samuel Peter. These are fighters that Wladimir has faced during his career.

Haye says this about Chambers: “He seems like the typical Wladimir opponent.” What Haye means it that Chambers is small, doesn’t have much power and is somewhat one-dimensional in his movements around the ring? Haye obviously sees himself as a better heavyweight, even though he has nowhere near the same heavyweight experience as Chambers does. It would be difficult to see Haye beat Samuel Peter, who Chambers defeated last year by a 10 round decision.

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