Haye unwilling to fight Vitali in Ukraine, afraid for his own safety

By Boxing News - 09/25/2012 - Comments

Image: Haye unwilling to fight Vitali in Ukraine, afraid for his own safetyBy Allan Fox: Former WBA heavyweight champion David Haye wants no part of fighting WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko in Ukraine. It’s not that Haye doesn’t want the fight, because he definitely wants an opportunity to fight Vitali before he hangs up his gloves in the not too distant future. What the soon to be 32-year-old Haye is afraid of is getting beaten up by Ukrainian racists who might take issue with Haye because he’s part black.

Haye told the Sport Bild “I’ve never been to Ukraine, but I have heard it’s very dangerous for a black man. There are crazy racists who have already sent me death threats. So Germany would be the best and safest place for me to beat vitali and get out of the stadium alive.”

I wonder if Haye will stand behind his convictions and refuse the Vitali fight if the conditions are that it must take place in Ukraine. That would be a massive amount of money that Haye would be potentially walking away from. However, Haye has already lost tons of money simply by not being active following his loss to Wladimit Klitschko last year in July. Haye has fought only once since then, beating Dereck Chisora July.

Haye probably missed two nice paydays after the loss to Wladimir by not fighting again until July. So if Haye willing to throw away big money by inactivity then perhaps he’d be okay with walking away from a fight agaisnt Vitali that could bring him a ballpark figure of at least $10 million, possibly more. Even if it’s less than that, Haye will still be almost guaranteed to make more than $5 million. That’s good money and I’m sure he might wish he’d have taken that money some day later in life if things turn sour for him financially from a divorce or bad investments.

Vitali might want to fight in Ukraine as a going away present to his fans from his home country, as well as move to strengthen his position politically. Vitali is running for office in October, and it’ll make him look afterwards if he can fight in front of his constituents. He’d be the fighting politician if only one fight. If Vitali is interested in rising politically beyond the position he’s currently running for then a fight in Ukraine would definitely be a big boost for him.

Haye needs to accept whatever conditions that Vitali wants for the fight, including possibly fighting in Ukraine. If Haye is going to be getting a big payday then he needs to earn it and that includes facing a little bit of fear in traveling to a place that he might be scared of fighting in like Ukraine.

There’s also armed bodyguards that Haye can hire in Ukraine to tail him and make sure that youths don’t attempt to beat him up. It’s the young crowd that Haye would have to worry about in Ukraine, and just needs to make sure he doesn’t go out at night all by himself if he’s worried about getting jumped by somebody.



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