By James Slater: For those people who have always insisted they will believe the much anticipated heavyweight clash between rival champions Wladimir Klitschko and David Haye will happen only when both men are in the ring, some news broke yesterday that will only reinforce such thinking. Reported on the website of The Guardian, was the news that the two planned Klitschko-Haye press conferences, set for Hamburg and London this week, have both been called off because, “there are still issues to be resolved.”
Apparently, Haye manager Adam Booth did not return certain calls, and the brass at Sky began, as it says in the Guardian piece, “to go into mild panic.” As fans know, the two men who genuinely dislike one another were set to fight in June of 2009, with the contract signed and everything in place for a huge night of boxing – only for Haye to pull out with a bad back days before the rumble. Ever since, what with Klitschko showing that he too is susceptible to a fight-ruining injury ahead of an agreed date (twice he pulled out of a fight against Dereck Chisora), fans have began to worry whether the two will ever get it on at all.
Haye’s press officer, Elliot Worsell, said he doubted the fight would be called off, but many people seem unconvinced. Why have the two press conferences – which would have followed the heated face-to-face the two fighters had in New York a few days ago – been called off? What are “the issues still to be resolved?”
Wladimir did say in New York that he has major doubts Haye will show up for the fight. Haye has the exact same doubts about Klitschko!
Now, thanks to the scrapped press conferences, the fans are beginning to have the same doubts as the two heavyweights! It could all boil down to nothing, and the fight will hopefully go ahead as planned. Can the heavyweight division, to say nothing of the careers of the two men, survive yet another collapse of this unification battle?
The other intriguing heavyweight fight involving a Kitschko – Vitali against Tomasz Adamek on September 10th – has endured none of the drama that this fight has, with the big fight in Poland in no doubt. Why can’t things be this simple with Klitschko-Haye?