By Andrew Meggers-Lloyd: With seven weeks of nail-biting waiting to go, until one of the greatest Heavyweight events of all time, the press tour for Wladimir Klitschko v David Haye came to an end this week. After taking in the great cities of New York, London and Hamburg, and partaking in many interesting minutes of verbal sparring, I feel we now have a clearer picture of the mental state and character of each of the two combatants. Klitschko, as ever, has been his usual calm, debonair self, using his charming nature and eloquent speech to prove to the World, and to David Haye, that you can be loved as a Boxer for more than just being rough and tough.

We’ve seen examples of him kissing British TV presenter Sian Williams, who commented on his “beautiful eyes” wondering why he even boxes at all. He’s courteous, generous with his time, and wants the fight to be a fair and gentlemanly sporting event. Wladimir, whilst promoting the fight, has never failed to allude to the fact that Haye won’t shake his hand, or even sit close enough to him to share the platform they’ve been offered on many television shows to promote themselves. “He won’t shake my hand…come on, David, shake my magic hand, it won’t hurt you,”h e playfully asks. Wladimir is certainly doing himself many favours with the British public, many of whom have commented on various websites, such as Eastside Boxing, about how much of a gentleman he is.

David Haye on the other hand, has shown the intensity of a lion who must fight another lion for the last piece of meat in the cage. He is a lot calmer than I’ve seen him in the past, but as Wladimir quoted whilst being interviewed this week “The eyes are the window to the soul”. Haye spoke of envisaging ” the brutal destruction” of Klitschko jr. whilst being interviewed by Craig Slater for Sky Sports News. Everything about him cries out that he is a man willing to do whatever he has to, to take the most sought after prize in World sport off the giant Ukrainian. Haye has called Wladimir “boring, one dimensional…a jab-jab-grabber,” and worst of all, “a disgrace to heavyweight boxing”. Haye shows me that he wants to anger Wladimir, he wants to make Wladimir hate him enough so that when the bell rings in the Imtech Arena, Hamburg, on July 2nd, Wladimir will want to fight Haye in the middle of the ring, flying bombs a-plenty, as opposed to the usual distance fighting approach that Wladimir usually utilises so successfully. Without doubt, there is a high level of tension and animosity between the two fighters, a lot of professional rivalry and also a lot of national pride at stake, with one representing the United Kingdom, and the other having made Germany his base since he left Kazakhstan and Ukraine.

In my honest opinion, having watched a lot of Boxing in the last 10-15 years, I couldn’t even begin to predict who will win this fight, and I wouldn’t want to. There’s a case for each fighter as both can be as deadly as the other if they’re allowed to use their best assets. What I am thankful for, as a fan more than anything else, and on behalf of other fans, is that we’re finally getting the opportunity to see the type of duel we all crave. May the best man win.