By P.H. Burbridge – The nightmare that is David Haye has finally ended for the Klitschko camp as Wladimir has once again pulled a rabbit out of his hat to salvage another Haye / Booth blunder. So, welcome to the big time, Ruslan Chagaev courtesy of a loud talking and still unproven David Haye. The Wladimir Klitschko vs Ruslan Chagaev fight is starting to grow on me as it draws nearer. It better because I don’t have a choice.. Neither does Wladimir Klitschko. David Haye has so far turned out to be the biggest mistake Wladimir has made in terms of an opponent and I’m sure that he’s cursing the day he ever said “okay” to that fight. He’s essentially wasted half a year going round and round with Haye and he still hasn’t had an opportunity to put his hands on him. The heavyweight champion of the world forced to find a replacement 2 ½ weeks before the fight! If I’m a German ticket holder I’d be pretty upset right about now. They bought tens of thousands of tickets to see the Klitschko-Haye fight and now they’re left with a match that no one was really clamoring for.
Thanks, David Haye!
For all the hype, all the talk and the ridiculously stupid T shirt I was kind of looking forward to the Haye fight. When you’re a boxing fan you sometimes allow yourself to get drawn in to a match that you know shouldn’t be that competitive but you want to see it anyway. As a fan base, we’re a bunch of dreamers which sometimes pays off when we’re treated to an upset. It doesn’t happen that often but when it does we don’t want to be the one to miss out on it. That was my key motivation to watch that fight. In the back of my mind I thought “maybe”. Maybe if Haye lands something hard early it will force Wladimir out of his comfort zone and we might get an interesting fight. Stranger things have happened. In reality, Wladimir probably would have been cautious early and knocked Haye out in the second half of the fight after delivering one stiff jab after another. I expected Wlad to wait out Haye’s early storm and then take advantage of his lack of lung power while aiming at his untested heavyweight chin later in the fight. At the end of the day that’s probably what a lot of us expected but we suppress that sense hoping that we’re treated to an upset. It was also nice that it was going to be televised on HBO rather than HBO PPV. Far too often we’re forced to shell out our hard earned cash to see a fight that leaves us staring at our cable bill at the end of the month and wondering if we should have kept that cash for Jr’s college fund.
Times are too tough to be wasting money on fights that leave us feeling ripped off.
Another key motivating factor to see the fight was the always fun “watch the loud mouth get his head handed to him”! It’s nice to see a trash talker get “humbled”. I’m not a big De La Hoya fan but I have to admit it was nice seeing Oscar “punish” Ricardo Mayorga for his BS. A part of me was really starting to look forward to seeing Wladimir “deal” with David Haye in the same manner. Considering all the nonsense he’s had to endure it would have been enjoyable to see him make Haye pay for it. Klitschko’s the one who got screwed here. He prepared for one guy and now he has to change up his game for another. As well all know that could be a recipe for disaster. But, from a fans perspective it does add a little bit of intrigue to a fight that has very little. Again, stranger things have happened. Frankly, if I’m Wladimir Klitschko I have NO INTEREST in doing business with David Haye or Adam Booth ever again. The only way I would accept their challenge is by sanctioning body mandate. From a business perspective I wouldn’t be surprised if he and Vitali froze Haye out. Lately there’s been talk about Vitali fighting Haye in September which would baffle me especially if Vitali has to relinquish his title to do it. Considering that the Klitschko’s have openly stated their desire to hold “all” the world titles between them a match with Haye would seem counter productive to that goal. I’d be very surprised if that fight was made. It would just seem to be a bad business move.
Haye’s initial deal with Wlad was predicated on his supposed “star power” at the box office which became questionable once he and Booth backed out of their original selling point which was a sold out Stamford Bridge. In fact, Klitschko and Boente dropped Arreola and Goossen and a possible (and likely) sold out Staple Center for a proposed May 16th date thinking they would rake in a “bigger payday” against Haye in Europe. Knowing that eventually they would have to face Arreola as a mandatory after Wlad defends against Povetkin. Arreola is ranked #2 by the IBF to Povetkin’s #1 ranking. At the time, the Haye fight seemed like the right business move but it sure did blow up in their face. The Klitschko’s got burned on that one and I’m sure if Vitali is genuine about collecting the WBA belt to solidify the brother’s standing then he’ll continue to work towards a match with Nikolai Valuev. Not David Haye. The rationale is obvious. What happens if he relinquished his title to fight Haye and Haye get’s injured again? What do you do then? I just can’t see Vitali walking away from his championship belt to take a fight with a guy who is questionable and in the end win or lose he’d still be an ex-champion. Why would he do David Haye that favor? That wouldn’t make any sense because Vitali has too many other options. The last time I checked Chris Arreola was the #1 ranked heavyweight in the WBC. You don’t think Vitali can make money fighting him? That’s a fight we’ll shell out to see and I’m sure the WBC would be somewhat accommodating regarding the Maskaev business and allow for that fight to happen. The sanctioning fee alone would be worth it to José Sulaimán. Forget the ethics. (As they often do!) If Vitali does have to walk away from his belt to fight someone I highly doubt it would be David Haye. I could see him possibly walking away to fight for Valuev’s WBA title with a goal of winning that title and then going after whoever the current WBC champion is in a unification match. That would be for big money especially, if the new champion was Chris “The Nightmare” Arreola. Either way Vitali plays it he has a title. If he fights Haye he only gets a payday. That’s not a good long term plan and at this point who knows how big a pay day that would be considering that fans are somewhat disillusioned with Haye.
It makes more sense for Vitali to fight Valuev in Germany which would be a huge attraction in Europe or take on Arreola in the U.S. which would be huge here. Those are two solid options.
You can bet that both those guys would at least make it out of training camp and show up to the fight!
Haye talked his way into a heavyweight championship match that 95% of the boxing public didn’t think he deserved and he ended up leaving Klitschko standing at the alter.
You called Wladimir out, he answered and then YOU failed to step forward under questionable circumstances.
In my eye’s, WK is OFF THE HOOK. The Klitschko’s don’t owe Haye a thing and they’re not in the business of doing “favors”. They are professional prize fighters who show up to fight and expect to get paid.
Frankly it would be irresponsible for either to bank on Haye at this point.
Too many other options for both brothers to chance it. For Wlad, he’s on to plan B and Chagaev is on deck.
For the fans it shouldn’t be that bad considering Ruslan is a world class fighter and actually has better credentials in the division than Haye. It’s decent plan B. It’s also going to be picked up by ESPN Classic so that’s a plus as well.
So, where does this leave David Haye?
Time for him to take his place in line and show us what he’s really made of by fighting his way into mandatory contention. It’s the only way because as of today we have our doubts.
I have a lot of doubts!
(Please feel free to contact P.H. Burbridge via email at PHBboxing@yahoo.com with any comments or feedback.)