Vitali Klitchko to fight Haye

[Bert Le Clos]

Interesting, as it seemed Haye wanted Wladimir first.

 

Sounds promising though.

 

BBC Sport

[clanmac]

"Get it signed",get it on home soil and Haye has more than a good chance of beating him.

[Dusk_Till_Dawn]

Interesting, as it seemed Haye wanted Wladimir first.

 

Sounds promising though.

 

BBC Sport

 

Heard this before many times. Just do the deal

[RoyCropper]

Heard this before many times. Just do the deal

 

I have gone off David Haye abit recently.

 

Seems he is only interested in the money. The Harrison thing was a joke. I know its not his fault but that fight wasnt in the best interests of progressing his career.

 

He says he is retiring next year. Well if he is then lets see what he is made of until then, going all out and taking on these two.

[clanmac]

Even Haye and the Klitchko's know the must battle it out there is no one of any pedigree left in the heavyweight division.It will happen without a doubt.

[The Doctor]

I don't blame him for taking the Harrison fight, this time last week Haye had two maybe three fights left in his career. If he'd fought either Klitchko, and lost, any future fight with Harrison would be worthless. He knew that fighting Harrison now was the best chance to make the maximum amount from the fight, fair play to him.

 

If he fights Vitali and wins, great, he'll go on to fight Wladimir and that might be the last time he ever steps into a ring with intent. If he gets beaten, well, he's made the most he could, I can't blame him.

 

Also, he can only fight the man in front of him.

 

If he fights and beats Vitali a fight with Wladimir would be massive, I might even pay to see that!

[Frankenstein Jambo.]

I don't blame him for taking the Harrison fight, this time last week Haye had two maybe three fights left in his career. If he'd fought either Klitchko, and lost, any future fight with Harrison would be worthless. He knew that fighting Harrison now was the best chance to make the maximum amount from the fight, fair play to him.

 

If he fights Vitali and wins, great, he'll go on to fight Wladimir and that might be the last time he ever steps into a ring with intent. If he gets beaten, well, he's made the most he could, I can't blame him.

 

Also, he can only fight the man in front of him.

 

If he fights and beats Vitali a fight with Wladimir would be massive, I might even pay to see that!

IMO if he beat them then he is one of the best heavyweights of all time.

[Gigolo-Aunt]

IMO if he beat them then he is one of the best heavyweights of all time.

 

Oooooft.

 

That's one of the most gutsiest calls ever on Kickback.

[Chris Benoit]

Wouldn't say the greatest heavyweights but certainly if he beats them both it would make him one of the best of his generation but at their respective peaks Lewis would hammer him

[Frankenstein Jambo.]

Oooooft.

 

That's one of the most gutsiest calls ever on Kickback.

His record..26 fights, 25 wins with 23 knockouts and 1 loss.

 

Can only beat who is in front of him and while he may not be as good as Tyson, Lewis and Ali he still will still have ruled his division and beat all the best he can can possibly beat.

[Rocco_Jambo]

Nothing to see here. The Klitshcko's offered haye the same deal a few months ago. Haye was knowhere to be seen then once the brothers had agreed other fights Haye came out and announced the Harrison fight because it was 'the fight everybody wanted to see'. No closer to this fight at all at the moment.

[Gigolo-Aunt]

His record..26 fights, 25 wins with 23 knockouts and 1 loss.

 

Can only beat who is in front of him and while he may not be as good as Tyson, Lewis and Ali he still will still have ruled his division and beat all the best he can can possibly beat.

 

You seem to be forgetting one key part of your "Best Heavyweights of all time"

 

He has boxed about 90% of his career outside that weight.

[Don Juan]

Is Haye fighting Harrison any worse than the list of bums the Klitchko have fought over the past few years?? Some of their opponents have been just as bad as Harrison was at the weekend.

 

Both camps are to blame for the fight not happening so far, hopefully some compramise can be reached and the fights happen.

[Bert Le Clos]

What I think is more interesting about this is that Haye's camp clearly wanted Wladimir first, not Vitali.

 

Both Haye and his trainer said as much after the Harrison fight.

 

It seems generally accepted that Vitali is the better of the two, was Haye hoping he would be past it by the time they had to fight?

[Dusk_Till_Dawn]

You seem to be forgetting one key part of your "Best Heavyweights of all time"

 

He has boxed about 90% of his career outside that weight.

 

Is the right answer. Haye won't register in any rundown of the top 10

[Gigolo-Aunt]

Is the right answer. Haye won't register in any rundown of the top 10

 

He can leave his mark on his generation of Heavyweights, but thats about it.

[Rocco_Jambo]

Is Haye fighting Harrison any worse than the list of bums the Klitchko have fought over the past few years?? Some of their opponents have been just as bad as Harrison was at the weekend.

 

Both camps are to blame for the fight not happening so far, hopefully some compramise can be reached and the fights happen.

 

Yes fighting Harrison is worse.

[Don Juan]

Vitali's last 5 opponents:

 

Shannon Briggs, Albert Sosnowski, Kevin Johnson, Chris Arreola, Juan Carlos Gomez

 

Wladimir's last 5 opponents:

 

Samuel Peter, Eddie Chambers, Ruslan Chagaev, Hasim Rahman, Tony Thomspon

 

If you seen these fights (and I have seen just about all of them) you will know how hopelessly overmatched these guys were and how little fight they put up - much like Harrison at the weekend.

[Andy.C]

Haye can never be mentioned as an 'All time great' heavyweight, as pointed out, he's boxed far too much of his career outwith the division. Added to that, the complete lack of talent in the divison will also go against him (not his fault). What he can do is clean up the division and be remembered as being the top heavyweight of his generation, which is still an achievement. As pointed out above, outside of the Klitchsko's there is really nothing in the way of talent in the division. As Lennox Lewis was saying at the weekend, they need Haye as much as he needs them to cement any kind of recognisable legacy.

[Snake Plissken]

First of all, when you pluralise Klitchko, you don't need an apostrophe.

 

Cool.

 

Second, when one thinks of the great heavyweights post WW2, how would Haye stack up?

 

Louis

Marciano

Ali

Frazier

Foreman

Holmes

Tyson

Holyfield

Lewis

 

Not very well in the opinion of this poster, a good boxer without doubt, but a great one?

 

Not until he defeats a worthy opponent and while it's not his fault the heavyweight division has little in the way of quality, he hasn't even fought one of the better ones out there yet.

[super_vlad]

First of all, when you pluralise Klitchko, you don't need an apostrophe.

 

Cool.

 

Second, when one thinks of the great heavyweights post WW2, how would Haye stack up?

 

Louis

Marciano

Ali

Frazier

Foreman

Holmes

Tyson

Holyfield

Lewis

 

Not very well in the opinion of this poster, a good boxer without doubt, but a great one?

 

Not until he defeats a worthy opponent and while it's not his fault the heavyweight division has little in the way of quality, he hasn't even fought one of the better ones out there yet.

 

was raging reading this thread down till i saw Don Juan and yourself post. The best of all time ! its laughable he could get into the ring with both of them at the same time and knock them both down and he will still never be in the class of the people meation above. Boxing in general is piss poor right now and the Klitchkos have manage to rule a pretty shite rooats for far too long because the changlers are just not there.

 

At least the Pac man and floyd have in their past fought decent oppenants, now a days as soon as you can get a belt and a tv deal you just fight any bum to keep the money coming in rather than risking the big fights.

 

If Boxing had any digitiy left, lets see floyd vs Pac-man, with Haye vs Wladier Klitcho on the same night ! It would break all the records for pay per view ! What a night, it would not happen tho as its boxing not WWF !

[Boomstick]

I would love to see Vitali get beaten by Haye...then see Haye get spanked, and he would, by Wladimir.

 

Not hugely into boxing but I ******* love Wladimir Klitchko.

[Rocco_Jambo]

Vitali's last 5 opponents:

 

Shannon Briggs, Albert Sosnowski, Kevin Johnson, Chris Arreola, Juan Carlos Gomez

 

Wladimir's last 5 opponents:

 

Samuel Peter, Eddie Chambers, Ruslan Chagaev, Hasim Rahman, Tony Thomspon

 

If you seen these fights (and I have seen just about all of them) you will know how hopelessly overmatched these guys were and how little fight they put up - much like Harrison at the weekend.

 

To be honest I'm not sure what your argument is. By listing these fighters all you've down is make the difference between Harrison and the calibre of the Klitschko's opposition even more obvious.

 

Samuel Peter - Former World title holder, Eddie Chambers - Only one defeat to Povetkin and won Title eliminator, Ruslan Chagaev - Former world title holder, Hasim Rahman - Former world title holder, Tony Thompson - Only one loss in first few fights as a pro.

 

Shannon briggs - Former world title holder, Juan Carlos Gomez - won title eliminator, Chris Arreola - Undefeated fighter, Kevin Johnson - Undefeated fighter.

 

Audley Harrison - past it fighter who had 5 fights at British level lost 3 won 2 and the 2 he did win were against opposition he had previously been beaten by i.e a fat Danny Williams and a lucky win against Sprott.

 

None of the above you have listed should be considered good fighters but they are mostly world level fighters in a crap division whereas Harrison is a domestic level fighter in a crap division. Yes Vitali and Wlad have had easy fights and these guys were overmatched but they are still far better opponents than Harrison. The only one even coming close to as bad as Harrison is Sosnowski who before relinquishing his Euro belt to fight Wlad was scheduled to fight Harrison and Harrison was 9/4 outsider and I doubt many would have been rushing to back him.

 

Vitali's opposition have been easier but you can't fault Wlad for his last 5 fights. He has been at the top for a while and has beaten everybody else. Povetkin

and Adamek have made it clear they don't think their ready to fight him and Haye rather than taking up their 50/50 offer went quite and then fought Harrison. Plus Wlad fights every few months hammering these guys. If Haye fought every couple of months and was hammering the opposition then you would forgive him an easy money fight but not if he disappears for 7 months then reappears and fights Harrison, throws about 30 punches , then will no doubt disappear until next summer and then he is supposed to retire.

 

Add in the fact that Haye has spent the last 2 years going on about how boring the brothers are and how they only fight bums and how crap the division is then he loses a hell of a lot of credibility and respect when he fights crap like Harrison. If the division is that crap then whats to stop him fighting again in february prior to a Klitshcko fight against a top 10 fighter like Chambers or Peters and knocking them out.

 

I've been a big fan of Haye since his very early Cruiser days and you can't fault him for his career in that division as he stepped up every fight, would fight anybody and would go anywhere to do it but at heavyweight he is in danger of becoming a joke given the things he has been spouting off for the last 2 years and he deserves a lot of criticism for fighting Harrison.

[BigC]

To be honest I'm not sure what your argument is. By listing these fighters all you've down is make the difference between Harrison and the calibre of the Klitschko's opposition even more obvious.

 

Samuel Peter - Former World title holder, Eddie Chambers - Only one defeat to Povetkin and won Title eliminator, Ruslan Chagaev - Former world title holder, Hasim Rahman - Former world title holder, Tony Thompson - Only one loss in first few fights as a pro.

 

Shannon briggs - Former world title holder, Juan Carlos Gomez - won title eliminator, Chris Arreola - Undefeated fighter, Kevin Johnson - Undefeated fighter.

 

Audley Harrison - past it fighter who had 5 fights at British level lost 3 won 2 and the 2 he did win were against opposition he had previously been beaten by i.e a fat Danny Williams and a lucky win against Sprott.

 

None of the above you have listed should be considered good fighters but they are mostly world level fighters in a crap division whereas Harrison is a domestic level fighter in a crap division. Yes Vitali and Wlad have had easy fights and these guys were overmatched but they are still far better opponents than Harrison. The only one even coming close to as bad as Harrison is Sosnowski who before relinquishing his Euro belt to fight Wlad was scheduled to fight Harrison and Harrison was 9/4 outsider and I doubt many would have been rushing to back him.

 

Vitali's opposition have been easier but you can't fault Wlad for his last 5 fights. He has been at the top for a while and has beaten everybody else. Povetkin

and Adamek have made it clear they don't think their ready to fight him and Haye rather than taking up their 50/50 offer went quite and then fought Harrison. Plus Wlad fights every few months hammering these guys. If Haye fought every couple of months and was hammering the opposition then you would forgive him an easy money fight but not if he disappears for 7 months then reappears and fights Harrison, throws about 30 punches , then will no doubt disappear until next summer and then he is supposed to retire.

 

Add in the fact that Haye has spent the last 2 years going on about how boring the brothers are and how they only fight bums and how crap the division is then he loses a hell of a lot of credibility and respect when he fights crap like Harrison. If the division is that crap then whats to stop him fighting again in february prior to a Klitshcko fight against a top 10 fighter like Chambers or Peters and knocking them out.

 

I've been a big fan of Haye since his very early Cruiser days and you can't fault him for his career in that division as he stepped up every fight, would fight anybody and would go anywhere to do it but at heavyweight he is in danger of becoming a joke given the things he has been spouting off for the last 2 years and he deserves a lot of criticism for fighting Harrison.

 

Excellent post.

 

If the contract doesn't get signed quickly, Haye has to fight one of the "Bums" and knock them out or he loses all credibility.

 

Fraudley was easy money, understandable that he took it, but a fight every 8 months is not enough to prove you are the best of the best.

[Don Juan]

To be honest I'm not sure what your argument is. By listing these fighters all you've down is make the difference between Harrison and the calibre of the Klitschko's opposition even more obvious.

 

Samuel Peter - Former World title holder, Eddie Chambers - Only one defeat to Povetkin and won Title eliminator, Ruslan Chagaev - Former world title holder, Hasim Rahman - Former world title holder, Tony Thompson - Only one loss in first few fights as a pro.

 

Shannon briggs - Former world title holder, Juan Carlos Gomez - won title eliminator, Chris Arreola - Undefeated fighter, Kevin Johnson - Undefeated fighter.

 

Audley Harrison - past it fighter who had 5 fights at British level lost 3 won 2 and the 2 he did win were against opposition he had previously been beaten by i.e a fat Danny Williams and a lucky win against Sprott.

 

None of the above you have listed should be considered good fighters but they are mostly world level fighters in a crap division whereas Harrison is a domestic level fighter in a crap division. Yes Vitali and Wlad have had easy fights and these guys were overmatched but they are still far better opponents than Harrison. The only one even coming close to as bad as Harrison is Sosnowski who before relinquishing his Euro belt to fight Wlad was scheduled to fight Harrison and Harrison was 9/4 outsider and I doubt many would have been rushing to back him.

 

Vitali's opposition have been easier but you can't fault Wlad for his last 5 fights. He has been at the top for a while and has beaten everybody else. Povetkin

and Adamek have made it clear they don't think their ready to fight him and Haye rather than taking up their 50/50 offer went quite and then fought Harrison. Plus Wlad fights every few months hammering these guys. If Haye fought every couple of months and was hammering the opposition then you would forgive him an easy money fight but not if he disappears for 7 months then reappears and fights Harrison, throws about 30 punches , then will no doubt disappear until next summer and then he is supposed to retire.

 

Add in the fact that Haye has spent the last 2 years going on about how boring the brothers are and how they only fight bums and how crap the division is then he loses a hell of a lot of credibility and respect when he fights crap like Harrison. If the division is that crap then whats to stop him fighting again in february prior to a Klitshcko fight against a top 10 fighter like Chambers or Peters and knocking them out.

 

I've been a big fan of Haye since his very early Cruiser days and you can't fault him for his career in that division as he stepped up every fight, would fight anybody and would go anywhere to do it but at heavyweight he is in danger of becoming a joke given the things he has been spouting off for the last 2 years and he deserves a lot of criticism for fighting Harrison.

 

 

The list that I provided is a list of fighters, who, yes, were world champions at one point in time, like Sam Peter and Shannon Briggs, but who are waaaaaaaaaay past their best and who if Haye fought, he would be slagged off for doing so (as he was when he fought Ruiz - a former world champion way past his best).

 

There is simply no way that Haye wouldnt have smashed any of these opponents up - or has dodged any of the opponents on these lists in order to fight Harrison - the fact is that the heavyweight division is in such a poor state it wouldnt matter who Haye fought, he would be crticised for doing so.

 

Haye's level of opposition so far is on a par with what the brothers have fought over the past few years, because apart from each other their is no one else decent to fight.

 

Also, Wladimir's next fight is against Derek Chisora - that is as much of a joke as Haye fighting Harrison.

[Snake Plissken]

The list that I provided is a list of fighters, who, yes, were world champions at one point in time, like Sam Peter and Shannon Briggs, but who are waaaaaaaaaay past their best and who if Haye fought, he would be slagged off for doing so (as he was when he fought Ruiz - a former world champion way past his best).

 

There is simply no way that Haye wouldnt have smashed any of these opponents up - or has dodged any of the opponents on these lists in order to fight Harrison - the fact is that the heavyweight division is in such a poor state it wouldnt matter who Haye fought, he would be crticised for doing so.

 

Haye's level of opposition so far is on a par with what the brothers have fought over the past few years, because apart from each other their is no one else decent to fight.

 

Also, Wladimir's next fight is against Derek Chisora - that is as much of a joke as Haye fighting Harrison.

 

An unbeaten 26 year old or a miles-past-it/never-had-it 39 year old with no heart?

 

For a direct comparison, Chisora stopped Danny Williams in two rounds, Harrison lost a split decision then stopped him in three. I'm not convinced of Chisora's credentials to challenge either but you can bet Chisora will put up a better fight than Harrison did.

 

There are a plethora of more worthy opponents than Harrison out there and the Klitchko brothers have fought most of them. The heavyweight division desperately needs a Haye v Klitchko fight to happen next year.

[Dusk_Till_Dawn]

An unbeaten 26 year old or a miles-past-it/never-had-it 39 year old with no heart?

 

For a direct comparison, Chisora stopped Danny Williams in two rounds, Harrison lost a split decision then stopped him in three. I'm not convinced of Chisora's credentials to challenge either but you can bet Chisora will put up a better fight than Harrison did.

 

There are a plethora of more worthy opponents than Harrison out there and the Klitchko brothers have fought most of them. The heavyweight division desperately needs a Haye v Klitchko fight to happen next year.

 

Chisora will get smashed to bits. It's another joke of a world-title fight to be fair

[Don Juan]

An unbeaten 26 year old or a miles-past-it/never-had-it 39 year old with no heart?

 

For a direct comparison, Chisora stopped Danny Williams in two rounds, Harrison lost a split decision then stopped him in three. I'm not convinced of Chisora's credentials to challenge either but you can bet Chisora will put up a better fight than Harrison did.

 

There are a plethora of more worthy opponents than Harrison out there and the Klitchko brothers have fought most of them. The heavyweight division desperately needs a Haye v Klitchko fight to happen next year.

 

How long do you think Chisora would last in a fight against Haye? Probably, the same distance as Harrison.

 

As for a direct comparison, you could argue that, by Harrison defeating Sprott and Williams he has defeated a higher level of opposition than Chisora has ever been in the ring with.

 

Also, having seen the majority of the Klitchko fights over the past 10 years the past few years opponents have been just as embarassing as Harrison was at the weekend. Fighters, who like Harrison hardly threw a punch against them. Now, to me, that is not the Klitchko's fault (or Haye's at the wend) -you can only fight who is available and the divison is so sparce, that is who is available.

 

But aye, the division really does need the Haye v Klitchko fights to happen soon otherwise we are just going to get more of the same.

[Rocco_Jambo]

The list that I provided is a list of fighters, who, yes, were world champions at one point in time, like Sam Peter and Shannon Briggs, but who are waaaaaaaaaay past their best and who if Haye fought, he would be slagged off for doing so (as he was when he fought Ruiz - a former world champion way past his best).

 

There is simply no way that Haye wouldnt have smashed any of these opponents up - or has dodged any of the opponents on these lists in order to fight Harrison - the fact is that the heavyweight division is in such a poor state it wouldnt matter who Haye fought, he would be crticised for doing so.

 

Haye's level of opposition so far is on a par with what the brothers have fought over the past few years, because apart from each other their is no one else decent to fight.

 

Also, Wladimir's next fight is against Derek Chisora - that is as much of a joke as Haye fighting Harrison.

 

Some of them are way past their best but guys like Peter, Chambers and Chagaev are still top 10 fighters. Haye wouldn't and shouldn't have been slagged off for fighting them if he were to have come out and fought one of them in August as a keep busy fight before a Klitschko fight being negotiated. I don't think at all that Haye is dodging them its just the risk isn't worth the reward and he seems to slowly be more interested in the glamour of being known as the Heavyweight champ and appearing on loose women and chat shows as opposed to actually boxing which is quite sad considering how fearless he was at Cruiser. They would be a decent test for him though and would be good experience for him.

 

He shouldn't have been criticised for the Ruiz fight as Ruiz was his mandatory and after winning the title abroad he should be allowed a reasonably straight forward coming home fight. But he got a lot less criticism for this fight because it was based on this premise and that he would after getting his mandatory out the way then fight a Klitschko. Instead he disappeared for 7 months after a relatively easy fight, rejected a Klitschko fight when offered 50/50 and then fought Audley Harrison.

 

His level of opposition was on a par with the brothers until he fought Audley Harrison. There is a difference between fighting past it fighters who have competed in world title bouts and who are still in the top 10-15 fighters in the world such as Peters, Chagaev and even Ruiz than fighting past it guys who even at their peak struggled to show they were even british title level. The klitschkos have been criticised for their standard of opposition over the years and for a number of years it has been Haye who has been doing this and because of this he should be held up to at least the standard the brothers have or even higher and therefore deserves criticism for fighting someone even worse than the brothers have in their recent fights after all the talk, chasing Wlad up escalators etc he has done.

 

The Chisora fight is a very disappointing fight and again shows how poor the division is but even then he is an undefeated fighter who will likely get hammered but he is getting better and better and we don't know how good he is so again a better fight than harrison. But anyway who is Wlad meant to fight? He will fight Chisora 3 months exactly after his last fight and has taken the fight to keep busy. As said above Povetkin and Adamek have said they aren't ready for him and Haye was fighting harrison. He has beaten most of the other top 10 heavies. Better to fight than just to disappear for 7 months. Severely doubt we will see Haye back out in early March even though by then he will have only have been hit by a single jab of Audleys in the last year.

 

Harrison was worse than who the Klitschkos had been fighting even though their opponents are no great shakes either. It is up to Haye now more so than the brothers to regain the credibility and the respect he has lost and if he is not willing to do this by agreeing to a 50/50 fight then he might as well piss off and retire. He will be remembered as a top Cruiser but a big disappointment at heavyweight.