In a somewhat unusual turn of events, Wladimir Klitschko released a video yesterday on YouTube, officially calling out David Haye to come and fight him. My guess would be this is perhaps an attempt at some reverse psychology (as personally I think Wladimir is running scared of Haye) as he know’s he can’t duck the Haye fight, or maybe it’s all part of a boxing marketing strategy to help boost interest in the fight. Either way, I like it!
David Haye was scheduled to fight Wladimir in a highly anticipated fight back in 2009, but unfortunately the fight fell through at the last minute due to a back injury at the Haye camp. Some people believed that this was Haye ‘bottling’ the fight at the last minute, however a more likely reason is around the contract that the Haye camp had to sign in order to secure the fight. It is widely believed that the Klitschko camp had Haye signed up to a 3 fight deal with K2 promotions, and would get little or no money for the fight. However, Haye had secured a sum from the Sports channel Setanta to cover his costs and make the contract viable. The back injury was announced in the press just days before Setanta officially announced that they were going into administration, and so this does sound plausable. Of course, lets not forget that it could also have been a legitimate injury!
As far as I’m aware, Haye has never ducked out of a fight and has always tried to fight the best. For example, he went to Paris to fight Marc Mormeck for the Cruiserweight title in his own backyard, fought the then dangerous Enzo Maccarinelli to unify the division, and of course fought (and lost) to Carl Thompson for a title at just his 11th pro fight – they are just three I can think of off the top of my head!
Haye also publicly challenged Wladimir Klitschko shortly after the Enzo Maccarinelli fight and joining the heavyweight division. He has shown he is not intimidated by either Klitschko, and believes that his “Hayemakers” will do what Corrie Sanders did to Wladimir, leaving him sprawled out on the canvas after detonating on his suspect chin.
Some of the comments on YouTube have been very negative, but I think this is all good fun and part of the build up to the fight. I hope Haye does a response video! For those that don’t have the Flash player installed, here is what Wladimir had to say:
I’m Wladimir Klitchsko, and I want to send this message to boxing fans around the world, and directly to David Haye. David, you have missed out on fighting both Klitschko brothers twice already; now is the time to make it happen. So on behalf of boxing fans around the world, I am officially calling you out to fight me. David, you can’t run away from me forever and you need to follow through with this fight to get respect. I’m ready. What are you waiting for?







