World number one cruiserweight David ‘The Hayemaker’ Haye will be unable attend Thursday’s (March 6) final press conference ahead of his March 8 showdown with Enzo Maccarinelli as the press meeting has been scheduled during the hours the WBC and WBA champion will be fast asleep. Set for 12.30 PM, the final press conference was supposed to present champion Haye and challenger Maccarinelli one final time to the press ahead of Saturday night’s much-anticipated battle..
owever, Haye feels it is unreasonable to expect him to jeopardise his sleep pattern in order to attend. “I was more than happy to meet the press at 2 PM, the time at which the conference was first scheduled last week,” Haye explained. “We originally requested the press conference for 4 PM – so I’d be fully awake and alert – but compromised and accepted doing it at 2 PM. However, knowing full well that I don’t wake up until gone 2 PM – to keep me on US time zones for the time of the first bell – Sports Network went ahead and re-arranged the press conference for mid-day.
“Given the fact that we are only days from the fight, I do not feel it is realistic to expect me to break my sleep pattern for something that could have been scheduled for any other hour in the day.” Haye continued: “I held my own press meeting on Tuesday. I met the press at 3.30 PM and it all went as planned. The journalists all understood why it had to be at that time, and some even ran close to deadline because of it.”
Though Haye, 20-1 (19 KO), will not be present at the O2 Arena on Thursday he assures everyone his presence will be felt empathically on Saturday night.
“This fight has been a long time coming and now it is here,” Haye, 27, added. “I personally don’t feel this fight would have ever come close to happening if I hadn’t gone public about my struggles to make the 14 st 4 lbs cruiserweight limit. There are lot of people banking on me being tight at the weight here. Yet, perhaps they’re just banking on the words of a man who likes to play games from time to time.
“I’m all about risks, reputation and entertaining the fans. I seriously believe a win for me on Saturday night would be a win for British boxing.”
A victory for Haye on Saturday could have even further-reaching effects on the British game.
“Frank Warren said he’d quit the sport if I ever beat Maccarinelli,” Haye continued. “We’d just like to remind him of that comment. Maybe he only said it before because he knew the chances of me accepting the fight on his terms were zero and nil. Is he willing to keep to his promise now that the fight is finally on? If so, he better get down the job centre early Monday morning.