Haye: Vitali needs to fight me to leave a legacy

By Boxing News - 12/25/2012 - Comments

vitali4By Scott Gilfoid: David Haye (26-2, 24 KO’s) thinks that WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (45-2, 41 KO’s) won’t have much of a legacy if he retires without fighting him. Haye sees little on Vitali’s resume other than his loss to Lennox Lewis as a match against a big named fighter. Haye counts himself as a fighter with a name that will give Vitali some kind of meaningful legacy should he agree to fight him.

Haye said to thesun.co.uk” I always assumed he [Vitali] was quite a proud man and wanted to leave some sort of legacy behind, which he won’t do at the moment because can you think of any big fighters that Vitali has fought? He’s had 50 fights against nobodies…the only recognized heavyweight out there is myself.”

I think Vitali doesn’t need Haye at all for him to have a decent legacy. It won’t be a great one, no doubt, but it’ll be good enough for his purposes. Vitali is just unfortunate that he and his brother Wladimir Klitschko held titles during a dead period in the heavyweight division where there weren’t many quality fighters.

Haye really wants to get the fight with Vitali, and he seems to have upped his self-marketing pressure to the levels where he was at when he was able to talk his way into a fight against Wladimir Klitschko in 2011. I don’t think it’s going to work with Vitali, though, because Haye is already tainted by his lopsided loss to Wladimir and he’s been unwilling to get in the ring to face anyone really good to redeem himself in any way.

Haye did fight once since his loss to Wladimir and that was in his win over 2nd tier fighter Dereck Chisora, but facing domestic level opposition like Chisora isn’t enough. Haye needs to fight the top five contenders if he wants to put pressure on Vitali, and it’s probably too late for Haye to be able to do that now because Vitali is on the verge of retirement.

I think Vitali’s resume is fine without Haye. Look at these fine wins:

Corrie Sanders – a heavyweight who I feel would knockout Haye no problems if he ever fought him in Sander’s youth.

Tomasz Adamek

Odlanier Solis

Samuel Peter – A prime Peter would knock Haye out

Juan Carlos Gomez

Kevin Johnson

Kirk Johnson – I think Johnson would have had a chance to KO Haye in his youth.

Chris Arreola – I also see Arreola beating Haye.

Shannon Briggs – Shannon would have been Haye.

Ross Puritty – Ross the Boss would definitely beat Haye.

Manuel Charr



Comments are closed.