According to an exclusive story from the British tabloid The Sun, David Haye, recently forced to withdraw from his June 20 fight with Wladimir Klitschko due to a back injury, has made quick work of finding himself a new opponent, reportedly striking a deal to fight Vitali Klitschko on September 12.
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David Haye Reportedly Fighting Vitali Klitschko in September
↵↵There is no word yet as to whether Vitali will take his WBC heavyweight title into the fight or whether he will be stripped of that belt. For the past few months, Vitali has been in legal wrangling with the WBC, which insisted that his next fight be a title defense against former champion Oleg Maskaev, a decree that Klitschko feels is unjust due to the fact that his last fight was also a WBC-mandated defense against Juan Carlos Gomez. ↵
↵↵Whether Vitali retains the title or not, however, seems irrelevant at this point. Somehow, David Haye, a former cruiserweight champion with exactly two heavyweight bouts to his name, has managed to make the entire heavyweight division right now a question of Haye vs. the Klitschkos. The deal that he had with Wladimir Klitschko for the now-defunct June 20 fight included two rematch clauses stating that if Haye beat Wladimir, he would then have to take on Vitali next, and if he beat Vitali, then Wladimir would get another crack at him.↵
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↵In other words, Haye was legally bound to face a never-ending procession of Klitschkos, and this when nearly everyone in the boxing world highly doubts that Haye will make it through even six rounds with either of the brothers K. You have to hand it to this guy’s instinct for self-hype. All his talk has turned his quest to conquer the double-headed Klitschko hydra into the source of greater worldwide speculation than any heavyweight fight (or fights, I suppose … or non-fights at the moment) since the Lewis/Tyson debacle in 2002. ↵
↵↵The whole drama was taken to the level of preposterous farce when after all his relentless blathering about ritual slaughter and beheading, Haye pulled out of his bout with Wlad just two weeks beforehand, citing a tweaked back (for an excellent BBC Sport video interview with Haye about his back, click here), a situation that seemed likely to provoke unanimous scorn for the man who was so suddenly unable to put his mouth where his mouth is. And yet, the reaction has been on the whole mild, and now before we even have a chance to work up a good froth about the matter, he makes this bout with Vitali and comes out of the whole mess smelling like a rose, with another Klitschko lined up for a fight that no doubt will sell another sixty or seventy thousand tickets just like his non-bout with Wlad. ↵
↵↵And all this before he’s done, well, anything that really warrants such intense scrutiny. I tell you, whatever we may come to feel about David Haye the fighter, David Haye the promoter is a fricking genius. Somewhere the ghosts of P.T. Barnum and Tex Rickard are having themselves a good laugh.↵
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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.
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