By Jim Dower: Well, it looks like David Haye stepped in and slightly pissed off former British heavyweight champion Sir Henry Cooper (40-14-1, 27 KOs), who was none too pleased with Haye’s recent t-shirt that he wore in a couple of press conferences with International Boxing Federation/World Boxing Organization heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, saying that it’s “bad for boxing” for Haye to wear a t-shirt of that kind.
The t-shirt that Cooper, 75, is refereeing to is one that Haye had put together that depicted him holding up the severed heads of Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko in both arms.
The t-shirt angered Wladimir a great deal, who complained repeatedly about it and vowed to make Haye suffer for it. However, Haye’s main objective apparently was to do make Wladimir angry in an effort to get Klitschko to come out immediately in their fight and try to knock Haye out.
Haye wants this because Wladimir is much taller than Haye at 6’6″, and has the better boxing skills along with perhaps the best jab in the division. Haye doesn’t stand much of a chance if Wladimir fights from the outside; hence Haye devised a way for Klitschko to lose his cool before the fight and come out in a rage trying to knock Haye out. Klitschko and Haye will be fighting on June 20th at the Veltins Arena, in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.
Cooper, who once knocked the famous Muhammed Ali down in their first fight in June 1963, feels that Haye doesn’t need gimmicks like t-shirts to get fans into the large German stadium, and that Haye should instead show how he’s better than Klitschko in the ring by knocking him out early.
Cooper obviously has a point, because Haye seems to have gone a little overboard in trying to sell the fight to the boxing public. Some of it seems to be Haye trying to sell the fight, but a good portion appears to be Haye trying to show Wladimir that he’s not afraid of him in order to try and get an extra edge.
Whether it works or not remains to be seen. However, it’s unlikely that Haye will be able to intimidate his way to victory without bringing something more to the table on June 20th. Klitschko has the better size, more experience against better heavyweight competition and the superior amateur credentials, with an Olympic Gold Medal victory in the super heavyweight division in the 1996 Olympics. For his part, Haye was a former Silver Medalist at the 2001 World Championships.
Copper likes Haye as a fighter, and sees him as having the best combination of movement, power and size of the current heavyweight contenders in the division. However, none of that will matter little unless Haye can somehow find a way to connect with Klitschko.
Haye has to find away to get past Wladimir’s jab so that Haye can try to take Wladimir out with a big shot. It might not be an easy task, because Klitschko likes to tie up his opponents when they get near to him, so Haye might not have a lot of chances to land more than one or two shots before being grabbed by Wladimir.
At the same time, Haye has to find a way to avoid getting hit by Klitschko’s big left hook. If Wladimir can connect with that punch, there’s little chance that Haye will be left standing.
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