Perhaps unsurprisingly, Wladimir Klitschko has announced that he has replaced David Haye with Ruslan Chagaev as his replacement for 20th June. Although many people including myself, maybe quick to view this as Wladimir using this as an opportunity to ‘get out’ of fighting Haye, lets take a quick look at the reasoning behind it and the possible pros and cons.
PROS for Klitschko team:
First of all the Hayemaker team has asked for the fight to be postponed until the 11th July (a 3 week delay). The Klitschko team were unhappy with this because they claimed that they wanted to fight much earlier in the year, and they had already set up dates with RTL, HBO etc. Additionally, they have no confirmation that Haye would definitely be ready for this date in the event of slower recovery or additional injury. Using a replacement fighter means that everything can carry on as previously arranged and scheduled.
Some people may think that Ruslan Chagaev is the easy option. I disagree, but think that he is definitely a less dangerous option than Haye. Ruslan should be in good shape after his scheduled fight with Nikolai Valuev was cancelled, and he still has 2 weeks of training for Klitschko. He also has joint ownership of the WBA title which I believe is the one title eluding the Klitschkos as the only belt they don’t have between them. They have always made it clear that they wish to be the only brothers in history to have ever held all the titles at once, and this would be a step closer to achieving that goal.
CONS for Klitschko team:
Currently the event is sold out, or very close to being sold out – this is 60,000 ticket sales of which a high percentage will be British fans, and German and Ukranian fans wanting to see Klitschko put his fist in David’s big mouth. It’s no secret that ticket sales surged once David attended the press conferences in his different t-shirts, inparticular the t-shirt showing him holding the decapitated heads of the Klitschko brothers! Not as many people will be interested in he Klitschko vs Chagaev fight which means there could be a lot of refunds being dished out as well as a lot of disgruntled fans.
Other cons include the perception that Wladimir is using this as his ‘get out of jail free card’ so that he no longer has to fight Haye (unless he becomes a mandatory challenger). This may or may not be true, but respect is difficult to earn and even harder to keep in the world of boxing! Klitschko has also been training for David’s fighting style, which isn’t a huge problem but means he only has 2 weeks now to prepare for Chagaev.
So what next for Haye?
Haye will have to take another route to get to Wladimir. If he will be fully recovered in a few weeks, he should look to take another fight and get closer to becoming a mandatory challenger. Alternatively, Vitali currently isn’t scheduled to fight anyone! The deal with the Klitschko’s is said to be a three fight contract (with very little money going to Haye), and although Haye should have been fighting Vitali if he beat Wladimir, it seems like the best option to me. Vitali is definitely the tougher of the 2 brothers, but he is now 37 years old. Lets see what happens…
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Posted in: Boxing News
Tags: chagaev, David Haye, haye, klitshcko, Vitali Klitschko, wladimir klitshcko
