Haye May Have Burned his Bridges With the Klitschko Brothers – Boxing

By Boxing News - 07/24/2009 - Comments

By Chris Williams: David Haye feels like he made the right decision by dropping out of negotiations with World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Vitali Klitscko the other day and opting for a fight against WBA heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev on November 7th. It was a calculated move on Haye’s part to get the better deal with the least amount of risk. However, by pulling out of the fight with Vitali, Haye may have ruined his chances of ever fighting a Klitschko again.

If this was the first time he had done this, it might be excusable, but unfortunately Haye had pulled out of a fight with Wladimir only last month, using the excuse that he had injured his back. It’s unknown whether Haye ever did have a back injury or not or whether it was a move to avoid the fight because he worried about whether he would receive his money from Setanta Sports, who were in the process of falling apart at the time.

Whatever the case, this latest move that Haye pulled on Vitali has angered both of the Klitschkos to the point where it’s unlikely they will want to risk dealing with him again and get pie in the face. It may not matter with way, because Haye has said that he only plans on fighting for two more years and unless he picks his opponents very carefully, he’ll likely get beaten by the first quality heavyweight that he faces.

While negotiating with Vitali, Haye went behind his back and struck a deal with WBA heavyweight champion Valuev for a bout that will be taking place on November 7th. He later said that he didn’t like the terms of the contract that Vitali and his management team were offering and that he would rather fight someone else rather than be disrespected.

Bernd Boente, the Klitschko manager, said there won’t be third time in which they deal with Haye, because of their bad experiences with him. Besides his pulling out of the fights, Haye took the pre-fight promotions to the lowest level by taunting Wladimir, calling him names, questioning his ability and having a t-shirt created depicting himself holding the severed heads of Wladimir and Vitali.

Wladimir, who usually is pretty low key while promoting a fight, was shocked, embarrassed and angered by Haye’s constant taunting, promising to make Haye pay in the ring. However, with only weeks to go before their June 20th fight, Haye backed out of the fight due an injury, forcing Wladimir to find another opponent.

Boente thinks that the real reason that Haye backed out of the Vitali fight is because he’s afraid to face Vitali, and thinks that Haye chose Valuev because he thinks that he can win the fight. He says that the fight might not have made as much money in England as Haye thought it would, because he’s not that popular in England.

In the latest news development, WBA mandatory challenger John Ruiz surfaced today, saying that he’s the mandatory for Valuev and that he plans on stopping the Haye-Valuev from happening. Ruiz feels that he should be next in line. If Ruiz gets his way, he’ll be fighting Valuev next, not Haye. That would be really bad for Haye, because he messed things up with the Klitschkos and would have to look for other heavyweights to fight.

None, unfortunately, have titles except for the Klitschko brothers, who have three of the four, and Valuev who holds that last belt. Haye may have to do some serious groveling to undo the damage that he did if he can’t get the Valuev fight. Either that, or move back down to the cruiserweight division and trying his luck against the likes of Tomasz Adamek.



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