By Chris Williams: For what it’s worth, negotiations have started between World Boxing Association heavyweight champion David Haye (24-1, 22 KO’s) and IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (54-3, 48 KO”s), according to Dan Rafael of ESPN. Haye’s manager/trainer Adam Booth is meeting with the Klitschko management to see if it’s possible to iron out a unification bout. The International Boxing Federation (IBF) and will allow the unification bout, if it can be arranged, to go ahead of a title defense by Klitschko against mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin.
However, putting a fight together between Haye and Klitschko might prove to be difficult, if not impossible, as Booth has already said that he wanted a 50-50 deal for Haye. That’s probably not realistic, given that Haye has only fought four times at heavyweight against non-dangerous punchers and mostly older fighters. Before that Haye fought at cruiserweight, which is considered by many people to be the weakest division in boxing.
Although Haye briefly held three of the four cruiserweight titles, he moved out of the division without facing fighters like Marco Huck, Danny Green, Ola Afolabi and Steve Cunningham. Wladimir has been a continuous heavyweight champion since 2006 and has been considered to be the best heavyweight in the division since that time.
Wladimir is still considered to be the best heavyweight in the division by most boxing experts, which would make it seem rather strange that Haye’s camp are requesting parity in negotiations with Klitschko. Haye went after 7-foot Russian Nikolay Valuev when seeking out a heavyweight title rather than attempting to go through Wladimir or his brother WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko.
To Haye’s credit, he was able to beat Valuev, but he barely got the win, beating him by a 12 round majority decision, and looked timid for most of the fight. Haye has defended the WBA title once, beating 38-year-old John Ruiz by a 9th round stoppage on April 3rd. As good as the win was, you have to keep in mind that this was a 38-year-old Ruiz, a light hitter, and not some of the bigger punchers in the top 10 like Samuel Peter, Odlanier Solis or Denis Boytsov that Haye was facing. If Haye insists on getting a 50-50 deal with Wladimir, then a fight between the two fighters will likely not happen. In that case, Wladimir will go ahead and defend his two titles against Povetkin, while Haye will face someone in the WBA.
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