By James Slater: Last weekend, former WBA heavyweight champ David Haye was all excited at the thought that he would get to face WBC heavyweight king Vitali Klitschko in “Dr. Iron Fist’s” very next fight. Haye wrote on his Twitter account that the 40-year-old legend had “agreed to fight me on an RTL interview.”
Later, there was even a web article courtesy of The Mirror that had a date in the works for the would-be fight: June 2nd in Germany. Of course, neither Vitali nor anyone from his team said officially that the fight was on – all we really had was Vitali smiling into SKY Sports cameras shortly after his younger brother had despatched Jean Marc Mormeck and saying he would “be happy to knock him [Haye] out.”
Well, as much as the elder Klitschko would love to KO Haye, it doesn’t look like the fight will happen: not for the WBC belt Vitali holds anyway. Don Jose Sulaiman has stated unequivocally that his organisation wants nothing at all to do with “bad example” Haye. Quoted on Frank Maloney’s official web site, the WBC President had the following things to say:
“The WBC will not accept David Haye,” Sulaiman stated. “He is not rated by the WBC. And, the British Board of Control can’t issue anything against someone who is not affiliated to them any more. If he was licensed, he’d for sure have his licence taken away from him. It would be setting a bad example for boxing if we accepted David Haye.”
Of course, in the opinion of many, Don Jose is no angel; his list of critics a mile long. Yet in light of Haye’s part in the infamous Munich brawl with fellow Brit Dereck Chisora, most fans will be firmly in agreement with the WBC head on this one.
Vitali, however, has a burning desire to fight Haye so he can “send him to the dust” and punish him for all the bad things he said about he and his younger brother. Does Sulaiman have no sympathy with Klitschko’s urge?
“This is a long feud, but I believe Vitali must think of the world,” Sulaiman went on. “I think he should now look for something more important and worldwide. I would not like to mention David Haye again, because for me he’s not a good example for boxing. Let’s talk about someone else that could be a reality.”
But who is there out there for Vitali to fight? Don Jose doesn’t want Vitali to face just British fighters, but the only other man Vitali has recently expressed a desire to fight is Chisora, in a return meeting. It goes without saying that if Sulaiman feels Haye is a bad example, he will think the same about Chisora.
The world title belts they hold mean a whole lot to Wladimir and Vitali, but is it possible “Dr. Iron Fist,” so aching to smash Haye as he says he is, will opt to face the Londoner in a non-title affair? Stranger things have happened!