by John Wight: Wladimir Klitschko and David Haye are set to meet in Hamburg, Germany this Saturday night in one the most eagerly anticipated heavyweight contests in years. In fact, in terms of its significance it is no exaggeration to place this fight up there with the epic contest that took place between Wladimir’s older brother Vitali Klitschko and Britain’s Lennox Lewis back in 2003, when Lewis managed to open up a nasty cut above the giant Ukrainian’s left eye that led to the referee stopping the fight at the start of the seventh round. For many fans of the sport it was a controversial decision, as prior to the stoppage Lewis had been pushed all the way and was behind on all three judges’ scorecards.
Unsurprisingly there were calls for an immediate rematch not only by Vitali Klitschko and his management team, but also by boxing fans the sport the world over and the legion of writers who cover the sport. But for all that Lewis, perhaps the most dominant heavyweight of the modern era, never took the rematch and announced his retirement in February of 2004, thus paving the way for the changing of the guard in the heavyweight division and its domination by the Klitschkos ever since.
Like that fight, Saturday’s encounter could see another changing of the guard take place if as volubly predicted by Haye and his camp the smaller man puts in a devastating performance and knocks his opponent out. The only difference between then and now of course will be that rather than seek to dominate the division into the foreseeable future, as the Ukrainian brothers have done, Haye intends retiring in October, meaning that this could well be his last fight.
Haye and his manager and trainer, Adam Booth, are undoubtedly sharp operators, having successfully managed throughout their respective careers to out-negotiate the big promoters who control the sport to ensure that they receive maximum reward for their efforts. Specifically in the case of David Haye we have a man with a clear vision of where he wants to get to in life, with boxing being utilized as a stepping stone on the way to achieving that vision. This he has declared will see him head to Hollywood to pursue an acting career once he retires from the ring.
The danger though is that in announcing his retirement so far in advance the former cruiserweight world champion and current WBA heavyweight champ may have inadvertently weakened his focus, at least on a subconscious level. Even if he hasn’t, will he come to the ring prepared to dig deep if and when the fight goes into the trenches and he finds himself facing the kind of power he’s never faced before?
Surely a fighter with one eye on the exit door can never be as determined to dig as deep as one who remains committed to the sport.
This aspect of the fight assumes even more significance when we consider that in Wladimir Klitschko David Haye faces by far his toughest challenge yet. Standing 6’6” tall, Klitschko will weigh in the region of an in-shape 240-243lbs when both fighters touch gloves in the centre of the ring. The current WBO, IBF and Ring Magazine champion is a man who since suffering two back to back defeats against Corrie Sanders and Lamon Brewster back in 2003/04 has put together a run of 13 consecutive victories. Utilizing his physical attributes to devastating effect, the younger of the two Ukrainian giants possesses a pile driver of a jab that is fast, accurate and busy, along with a right hand that has seen him KO 49 opponents over the course of a professional career of 58 fights with just 3 defeats.
It is little wonder that he is nicknamed Dr Steelhammer.
Add to the Ukrainian’s formidable record the no small matter of having one of the sport’s all time great trainers in his corner, Emanuel Steward, the driving force behind the legendary Kronk Gym in Detroit, which in its time has produced champions of the calibre of Tommy Hearns, James Toney, and many more, David Haye is correct to say as he has during the build up that he will have to produce the performance of his career if he is to emerge victorious.
Haye, who possesses the hand speed and power to give his opponent serious problems, will have to be prepared to stay on the move to avoid his opponent’s jab, while at the same time not allowing himself to become so fixated on it that he makes the mistake of leaving himself open to a right hand. Moreover, when he does moves in to unload, he has to ensure he makes his own shots count in order to take away the bigger man’s power as quickly as possible.
One area where both fighters can claim parity is in having demonstrated earlier in their careers a vulnerable chin – Klitschko at the hands of Corrie Sanders and Lamon Brewster, as already mentioned, and Haye against Carl Thompson back in 2004, when he was stopped in the fifth round. With both men possessing genuine knockout power, this means that any lapse in concentration on the part of either is likely to spell night-night.
An aspect of the build up to the fight that has been particularly intriguing has been the psychological war that’s been waged between both men. Where David Haye is concerned political correctness is obviously a foreign land. During the build up to the Audley Harrison fight, he claimed that it would be as “one sided as a gang rape,” a comment that earned him a deluge of criticism from both within and outwith the sport and for which he refused to apologize. He has worn a T-shirt picturing himself holding the severed heads of both Klitschko brothers, claimed that Saturday’s fight will be an “execution,” and been accused by Wladimir Klitschko of taking things too far as a result. Likewise Klitschko, Renaissance man that he is, has come in for criticism for directing a homophobic remark at Haye during one of their pre-fight press conferences.
In the case of Haye it is clear that demonizing an opponent is a vital part of his mental preparation in the lead up to a fight. Given the nature of a sport that involves climbing into a ring in front of thousands of fans, with potentially millions more watching at home, to face another man who is intent on knocking you out, dispensing with the usual niceties of polite society is perhaps understandable if not acceptable.
Indeed, the history of boxing is littered with examples of fighters taking the pre-fight rhetoric a step too close to the level of the gutter for comfort. Ali’s verbal caning of Joe Frazier prior to their three epic contests is a case in point, something which the Philly legend has never forgotten nor forgiven. Tyson in advance of his fight against Lennox Lewis used some tasty language, and during one memorable publicity event bit a chunk out of Lewis’ leg during a scuffle. Then in 2008 the subject of race was introduced into the pre-fight proceedings by Bernard Hopkins as he prepared to face Joe Calzaghe, thus turning things ugly.
The aforementioned examples prove above all that fighters are human, experiencing the same fears and dread when it comes to physical confrontation and violence that we all experience. Preparing to face the ordeal of a fight, particularly against a formidable opponent you know is capable of hurting you, requires that you achieve a level of psychological preparation that is so far beyond the bounds of normality it is almost impossible to describe.
For the fans watching at home and the spectators ringside, Saturday’s fight between David Haye and Wladimir Klitsckho promises to be an exciting spectacle, a night of thrills and spills as two highly conditioned athletes meet to battle it out in the ring. But make no mistake, for both fighters it comes as the culmination of weeks and weeks of hard sparring and training and a constant battle to conquer those debilitating fears and doubts as the calendar approaches the moment of truth.
At bottom boxing is a sport in which primitive instincts of survival are unleashed in public, elevated to the status of virtue and entertainment as we tap into man in his most basic state of existence. Regardless of how it is packaged or presented, boxing sits at odds with the polite society surrounding it, which is precisely the reason for both its attraction and repulsion.
As long as the sport exists this is a contradiction that will always sit at its heart.