by James Slater– It may be somewhat “old news” now, but Dan Rafael, in his weekly “Quick Hits” column over on ESPN.com, has a short piece up about the ongoing situation regarding a possible Wladimir Klitschko-David Haye heavyweight unification clash.
As fans know, Haye, the current WBA heavyweight champ, spent a whole lot of time both insulting and calling out both of the Klitschko brothers last year. Succeeding in getting under the skin of both champions, Haye has now, uncharacteristically, gone quiet. Rafael’s piece reports how Bernd Boente, the Klitschko’s manager, has offered Team-Haye a very good offer for a big fight with Wladimir, the Ring magazine, IBF and WBO ruler. A 50-50 purse split was offered to Haye, with NO options asked for on future fights. This is a great deal, yet neither Haye nor anyone from his team have responded to offer according to Boente..
Boente says the generous offer proves how much “Dr. Steel Hammer” wants to get “The Hayemaker” into the ring, and that he is aghast that no reply has been sent to him with regards to this.
“We do not hear anything back from Haye or Adam Booth,” Boente is quoted as saying by ESPN.com. “All of a sudden Haye is very quiet now after doing all of that talk about fighting.”
Now, with Haye so quiet and, presumably (for whatever possible reason) not interested in taking the deal that is on the table, Klitschko will look at fighting his IBF mandatory challenger instead; unbeaten Russian Alexander Povetkin.
Boente said that if he cannot get a deal with Haye, he will either try to negotiate terms with Povetkin’s people or go to purse bids. Apparently, then, unless Haye suddenly comes out and agrees to get it on with Wladimir, the younger Klitschko brother will face Povetkin.
Both fights are intriguing and potentially exciting affairs, but it is the Haye fight Wladmir clearly wants the most. And he’s not alone: we fans want it too!
With this good offer out there for him, you’d have thought Haye, after all the moaning he did about “slave contracts” would jump at this new, highly sensible offer. But so far, no, he has not.
Fingers crossed he will accept the terms in time for the bout to be made and give us the fight heavyweight boxing deserves. No disrespect to the aggressive and talented Povetkin, who would likely give Wladimir a good argument, but the Klistchko-Haye fight has that extra special ingredient to it. In short, Klitschko, and a good deal of the German people, cant stand Haye and want to see him punished.
These same people are also worried this will never happen because the fight will never happen. Come on, David, accept the new deal and prove your critics wrong!