By Dave Lahr: It seems that IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (55-3, 49 KO’s) has had a change of mind about fighting WBA heavyweight champion David Haye (25-1, 23 KO’s), because Haye is saying that his people were contacted by Klitschko’s management. Haye has now canceled his fight for May 21st, and is looking to fight on July 21st against Wladimir. Before this, it looked as if Wladimir didn’t want the fight with Haye, because instead of fighting Haye on July 2nd, Wladimir chose to fight Dereck Chisora on April 30th.
It’s not a bad fight, but not the kind of move that a fighter makes when they’re looking at a fight that’s going to make $10+ million for each fighter. That’s a conservative estimate, of course. Wladimir’s move to fight Chisora looked like he had a case of cold feet and was looking for a way out after watching Haye dispatch the 6’6″ Audley Harrison.
Haye said in the sun.co.uk, “We are back on. We are tying to make it happen. We sent a long time with nothing from their side, then all of a sudden we got a phone call from Klitschko’s camp. They made contact with us, which I believe now shows they do want this fight to go ahead.”
I wouldn’t be so sure about that. Haye needs to keep his fingers crossed because this fight could disappear if Haye doesn’t cross every T and dot ever i. If Haye comes off as too intimidating before the fight contract is signed, my guess is Wladimir will be gone in no time flat. If I’m Haye, I’d be acting as meek as a lamb so he doesn’t scare Wladimir away. The last thing Haye needs to do is get Wladimir frightened at this point with the contracts still not signed. Haye can start scaring Wladimir to pieces once they sign the contact. And, yeah, I think Wladimir is very afraid of Haye. He should because Haye’s hand speed and power is going to give Wladimir headaches that may last for months.
Haye explains how Wladimir disappeared on him last time they were close to signing, saying “How it all ended last time was that we got to an agreement and then all of a sudden they turned around and said, ‘We’re fighting Chisora first.’ Just as we were about to put pen to paper with the terms we heard nothing from them.”
Wladimir probably got cold feet after watching Haye’s destruction of Harrison. I think it still might take a miracle for Wladimir to sign the contract for Haye. I fully expected him to wait Haye out until he retires in October rather than fight him.
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