By Allan Fox: As everyone knows by now, David Haye (25-2, 23 KOs) reportedly failed to agree to have his fight with Dereck Chisora (15-3, 9 KO’s) as a 12 round bout on Saturday night. Instead, Haye was only up for fighting 10 rounds instead of 12. Chisora thinks that’s pretty lame of Haye and he’s lost some respect for him because of that.

Chisora told thesun.co.uk “Ten rounds> This is a former world champion we’re talking about here and he wants to do the biggest fight in Britain over 10 rounds. He’s a p*****. When I heard that he wouldn’t do the 12 against me, I knew that he has started to brick it already. It just goes to show he’s scared.”

In fairness to Haye, he hasn’t fought since last year in July, and stamina will likely suffer even in a 10 round bout. It was a wise decision by Haye, because Chisora looked strong late in the fight in his loss to WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko last February in Munich, Germany. Chisora lost the fight by a lopsided 12 round decision, but he was clearly wearing Vitali down in the 11th and 12th rounds. Haye obviously would prefer not to be on the receiving end of Chisora’s power shots in a long distance fight. This is why it’s doubly important that Haye empty his arsenal in the first six rounds to ensure that Chisora isn’t still around in the second half of the fight after Haye fades.

It is kind of sad that the biggest heavyweight bout in Britain in many years won’t even be a 12 round. A lot of boxing fans are paying to see this fight, and if it doesn’t end by a knockout, those fans are going to be losing two rounds of action that might have produced a knockout of Haye or Chisora. It’s unfortunate that Haye couldn’t agree to go the full 12 rounds, because this fight really could have used those two additional rounds.

Chisora doesn’t think it’ll matter that the fight isn’t a 12 round fight, saying This fight is not going to go the full distance anyway.”

That’s possibly true, but if there’s going to be a knockout inside 10 rounds, I see being Chisora getting knocked out and not Haye. In a 12 round bout, I think Chisora has a good chance of scoring a knockout in the 11th or 12th if it were to last that long.