Did Wladimir duck Haye?

By Boxing News - 01/07/2011 - Comments

By Dave Lahr: Wladimir Klitschko had to have known that by choosing to fight Dereck Chisora in April, he would effectively be ruining the chance of his unification bout against WBA heavyweight champion David Haye. How could Wladimir not know that? By choosing the Chisora fight, Wladimir pretty much left Haye with no other choice but to scrap the idea of fighting Wladimir in July, because it would have required faith on Haye’s part that Wladimir would actually make the July 2nd date only two months after the Chisora fight.

With his retirement deadline coming up quick, Haye wasn’t willing to do that and I don’t blame him. Although Wladimir didn’t come out and say he doesn’t want to fight Haye, I think the Chisora fight pretty much amounts to the same thing. How can you take a fight with Chisora for what is really peanuts compared to the money he would make in the Haye fight if it puts that big mega fight in jeopardy?

If Wladimir didn’t understand that and didn’t do it intentionally in order to dodge the Haye fight, he should have realized it after Haye warned him not to do it. Wladimir ignored what Haye had to say and instead will go ahead and still fight Chisora. Now Haye is going in a different direction and will be facing Ruslan Chagaev, his number #1 WBA mandatory challenger, instead of fighting Wladimir on July 2nd. This all tells me that Wladmir, for whatever reason, didn’t want the fight with Haye.

Why else would Wladimir choose to fight Chisora for smaller money? I think Wladimir is afraid of the Haye fight after watching what he did to Audley Harrison recently. I guess I don’t blame Wladimir. You can’t defend against a fighter like Haye, because a huge portion of Wladimir’s game is based on clinching. Haye eats up fighters that try to clinch with him by just unloading on them with powerful shots each time they try to grab.

A huge part of Wladimir’s game would have been impacted if he chose to fight Haye, and I think he might have realized that. To fight Haye, it would have taken Wladimir years to change his entire fighting style around where he didn’t have to rely on clinching so much to shut down the offense of his oppponents. At 34, I think Wladimir can’t change his style and would have been knocked out by Haye.



Comments are closed.