By Sean McDaniel: According to Dan Rafael of ESPN, IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (54-3, 48 KO’s) has reportedly offered WBA heavyweight champion David Haye (24-1, 22 KO’s) a 50-50 deal in terms of the financial split, including no options and still Haye and his trainer/manager Adam Booth haven’t taken Klitschko up on the offer of the fight. This seems rather odd, because Haye wanted the 50-50 deal to start with and didn’t want options and here he is getting exactly that and yet he still doesn’t take the fight.
The manager for Klitschko, Bernd Boente, told Rafael, that they had offered Haye the 50-50 deal with no options but have heard nothing from Haye or Booth. With the amount of talking that Haye has been doing about wanting to fight Wladimir, it seems out of character for Haye not to go after this fight if he’s being offered a 50-50 deal and no options.
Of course, Haye might even be looking at more favorable terms than this for a fight against Klitschko, which of course would pretty much never happen because Klitschko is considered the best heavyweight in the division right now and Haye is, depending on how you ask, somewhere in the top 5. Haye does have other options available to him other than Wladimir. He could make big money fighting almost anyone in the heavyweight division because he’s like a big fish in a small pond in England.
There are no other heavyweights that are nearly as popular as him there and he can make a small fortune through television by fighting whoever he wants. Wladimir is the fight that everyone wants to see, but Haye might want a better deal or he could just want to take the easy fights for the time being, line his pockets a little more and then fight one or both of the Klitschko brothers.
The chances of Haye fighting both Klitschko brothers aren’t very good, because he’s likely to get knocked out by the first Klitschko brother he faces, so it would be kind of irrelevant for Haye to fight the other one. But with the absence of heavyweight stars in the division, both Klitschko brothers would still likely want to fight Haye, even if he gets knocked out by the first. However, given how selective Haye is in picking his opponents, it’s highly doubtful he would put himself in position to be knocked out by the other Klitschko brother after he tastes defeat from the first one.
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