David Haye vs Wlad Klitschko (July)
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Harsh criticism there. These high caliber opponents just aren't there at the moment for them to beat and the good fighters they do beat get downgraded immediately after they lose because they were beaten so soundly. I don't think this version of Wlad that we're watching right now is beaten easily by most throughout history. That's just me.
The hate is in the air!!
Manny Steward offered to fight Haye's coach, Groves gets in bro's faces.
Behind the bluster and insults is Adam Booth, Haye’s trainer, confidant, manager and strategist. They identified months ago that there is a ***** in Klitschko’s mental armoury, and their desire is to ruthlessly expose it again and again.
Haye’s plans are twofold: to drive up interest in this contest, in which he is the clear underdog, but also to get inside the head of Klitschko.
There are reports that pre-sales on Sky Box Office for the £50 million super-fight could overhaul the 1.2 million buys for Ricky Hatton’s world title fight with Floyd Mayweather in December 2008.
Yesterday, Haye succeeded in getting under the skin of Klitschko, his brother Vitali, and veteran trainer Emanuel Steward at a head-to-head news conference. With his mob decked out in white tracksuits, and the Ukrainian’s team in red, the plan began with Haye and his group deliberately arriving 30 minutes late for the press conference.
Over the course of two hours, Haye and his team set about Klitschko and his crew. Steward was left speechless and then offered to fight Haye’s punching coach Paddy Fitzpatrick, who alleged midway through the news conference that he had seen the veteran American applying handwraps against the rules in the past.
Later, Steward admitted that Klitschko “has been more emotional in the build-up to this fight than any other” that he had worked with him on. Steward said: “I’ve been involved in super-fights for 30 years, since the first between Thomas Hearns and Sugar Ray Leonard. This is leading up to be the second biggest after the Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson fight. Finally, Wlad has a ‘live’ opponent in David, who has a winning mindset, and not a lot of Wlad’s recent opponents have had that. This has a great feel about it.”
While Steward bolsters his man, behind Haye the thinking is that once hit, Klitschko will be vulnerable. And if there is one thing that Haye knows, it is how to finish.
Haye kicked off his latest verbal volley by describing his opponent, holder of the World Boxing Organisation, International Boxing Federation and International Boxing Organisation belts, as a “robot” that he will make “malfunction”.
“Wladimir is in great shape, is mentally prepared and has viewed all the tapes on me. But come fight night you will see something different and it will be great to watch this robot malfunction,” he said.
“I’m so happy the fight didn’t happen a couple of years ago, because I’m so much better now. People thought I was going to pull out, but here I am in tremendous shape and ready to do what I promised I would do. I have been day-dreaming about the fight, and we have drawn up the perfect game plan to beat Wladimir.”
Klitschko responded in kind, but he was clearly rattled by Haye’s constant hammering. “My name is Dr Klitschko, I am a therapist and on July 2 I am going to give you treatment. It is going to be reality rehab. I will knock you out into reality, which will be good for your life,” he said. “I respect you as a fighter, not a person. You will be a better person and have better manners after this fight.”
Then, as questions opened to the media, Vitali Klitschko, in the third row, took the microphone. “Make sure you come to the press conference after the fight,” said the elder of the brothers, and holder of the World Boxing Council belt. Haye responded immediately. “Make sure you are not in the ambulance with your brother and you get yourself to the post-fight press conference.”
Meanwhile, George Groves, the Haye-promoted British and Commonwealth supermiddleweight champion, roved around the room with a photographer’s camera, clearly displaying the T-shirt depicting Haye knocking the head off an Eastern European champion. Groves got into the faces of both Klitschko brothers with the camera at every opportunity.
Then, when the fighters faced off for the cameras, the motormouth Haye began a series of expletive-filled attacks on his opponent, as they stared each other down. “We’re in trouble now, the hard one is here,” added Haye, when Vitali joined them on the dais.
This is not hot air from Haye and his allies. Every move has been carefully conceived to irk and anger the bigger man. Haye wants Klitschko fighting with anger inside him. It may backfire on the night, but Booth and Haye’s desired end was achieved yesterday. There was steam coming off Klitschko when he left the MesseHalle in Hamburg.
Drip, drip on Twitter
Haye has deliberately attacked his rival time and again via his 250,000 followers on the social networking site. It has stuck.
Klitschko turned to Haye on the news conference day yesterday and said: “So, David, are you going to Tweet about this later?” Haye has been bragging about what he will do to Klitschko with his short messages.
Turn up late
Klitschko is formal, punctual and polite. He arrived at the Hamburg press conference yesterday 15 minutes early. Haye was half an hour late. It was clearly deliberate.
Haye has done this on several occasions. Klitschko has noticed, too. “You had better not be late for the fight,” Klitschko said. Haye may even be plotting to delay the timing of the fight on Saturday night by entering the ring behind schedule.
Apply an app
The latest ‘stunt’ by Haye was unveiled on two weeks ago, with Haye’s new iPhone App inviting fans “to knock the head off an Eastern European heavyweight champion”. This is the third time Haye has used the beheading stunt. Haye turned up to a press conference wearing a
T-shirt depicting him holding the heads of the decapitated Klitschko brothers, and did a photo shoot for Men’s Health magazine of him in shirt and tie, holding the severed head of Vitali Klitschko.
Use your friends
Paddy Fitzpatrick, Haye’s punching coach, yesterday alleged that he had caught Emanuel Steward, Klitschko’s trainer, using illegal handwraps in the past. It riled Steward at yesterday’s news conference. Steward said he “would fight” Fitzpatrick outside. Meanwhile, Haye-promoted George Groves, the British and Commonwealth supermiddleweight champion, was getting in the face of Wladimir Klitschko with his camera at every opportunity yesterday. Wearing a severed head T-shirt.
Manny Steward offered to fight Haye's coach, Groves gets in bro's faces.
Behind the bluster and insults is Adam Booth, Haye’s trainer, confidant, manager and strategist. They identified months ago that there is a ***** in Klitschko’s mental armoury, and their desire is to ruthlessly expose it again and again.
Haye’s plans are twofold: to drive up interest in this contest, in which he is the clear underdog, but also to get inside the head of Klitschko.
There are reports that pre-sales on Sky Box Office for the £50 million super-fight could overhaul the 1.2 million buys for Ricky Hatton’s world title fight with Floyd Mayweather in December 2008.
Yesterday, Haye succeeded in getting under the skin of Klitschko, his brother Vitali, and veteran trainer Emanuel Steward at a head-to-head news conference. With his mob decked out in white tracksuits, and the Ukrainian’s team in red, the plan began with Haye and his group deliberately arriving 30 minutes late for the press conference.
Over the course of two hours, Haye and his team set about Klitschko and his crew. Steward was left speechless and then offered to fight Haye’s punching coach Paddy Fitzpatrick, who alleged midway through the news conference that he had seen the veteran American applying handwraps against the rules in the past.
Later, Steward admitted that Klitschko “has been more emotional in the build-up to this fight than any other” that he had worked with him on. Steward said: “I’ve been involved in super-fights for 30 years, since the first between Thomas Hearns and Sugar Ray Leonard. This is leading up to be the second biggest after the Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson fight. Finally, Wlad has a ‘live’ opponent in David, who has a winning mindset, and not a lot of Wlad’s recent opponents have had that. This has a great feel about it.”
While Steward bolsters his man, behind Haye the thinking is that once hit, Klitschko will be vulnerable. And if there is one thing that Haye knows, it is how to finish.
Haye kicked off his latest verbal volley by describing his opponent, holder of the World Boxing Organisation, International Boxing Federation and International Boxing Organisation belts, as a “robot” that he will make “malfunction”.
“Wladimir is in great shape, is mentally prepared and has viewed all the tapes on me. But come fight night you will see something different and it will be great to watch this robot malfunction,” he said.
“I’m so happy the fight didn’t happen a couple of years ago, because I’m so much better now. People thought I was going to pull out, but here I am in tremendous shape and ready to do what I promised I would do. I have been day-dreaming about the fight, and we have drawn up the perfect game plan to beat Wladimir.”
Klitschko responded in kind, but he was clearly rattled by Haye’s constant hammering. “My name is Dr Klitschko, I am a therapist and on July 2 I am going to give you treatment. It is going to be reality rehab. I will knock you out into reality, which will be good for your life,” he said. “I respect you as a fighter, not a person. You will be a better person and have better manners after this fight.”
Then, as questions opened to the media, Vitali Klitschko, in the third row, took the microphone. “Make sure you come to the press conference after the fight,” said the elder of the brothers, and holder of the World Boxing Council belt. Haye responded immediately. “Make sure you are not in the ambulance with your brother and you get yourself to the post-fight press conference.”
Meanwhile, George Groves, the Haye-promoted British and Commonwealth supermiddleweight champion, roved around the room with a photographer’s camera, clearly displaying the T-shirt depicting Haye knocking the head off an Eastern European champion. Groves got into the faces of both Klitschko brothers with the camera at every opportunity.
Then, when the fighters faced off for the cameras, the motormouth Haye began a series of expletive-filled attacks on his opponent, as they stared each other down. “We’re in trouble now, the hard one is here,” added Haye, when Vitali joined them on the dais.
This is not hot air from Haye and his allies. Every move has been carefully conceived to irk and anger the bigger man. Haye wants Klitschko fighting with anger inside him. It may backfire on the night, but Booth and Haye’s desired end was achieved yesterday. There was steam coming off Klitschko when he left the MesseHalle in Hamburg.
Drip, drip on Twitter
Haye has deliberately attacked his rival time and again via his 250,000 followers on the social networking site. It has stuck.
Klitschko turned to Haye on the news conference day yesterday and said: “So, David, are you going to Tweet about this later?” Haye has been bragging about what he will do to Klitschko with his short messages.
Turn up late
Klitschko is formal, punctual and polite. He arrived at the Hamburg press conference yesterday 15 minutes early. Haye was half an hour late. It was clearly deliberate.
Haye has done this on several occasions. Klitschko has noticed, too. “You had better not be late for the fight,” Klitschko said. Haye may even be plotting to delay the timing of the fight on Saturday night by entering the ring behind schedule.
Apply an app
The latest ‘stunt’ by Haye was unveiled on two weeks ago, with Haye’s new iPhone App inviting fans “to knock the head off an Eastern European heavyweight champion”. This is the third time Haye has used the beheading stunt. Haye turned up to a press conference wearing a
T-shirt depicting him holding the heads of the decapitated Klitschko brothers, and did a photo shoot for Men’s Health magazine of him in shirt and tie, holding the severed head of Vitali Klitschko.
Use your friends
Paddy Fitzpatrick, Haye’s punching coach, yesterday alleged that he had caught Emanuel Steward, Klitschko’s trainer, using illegal handwraps in the past. It riled Steward at yesterday’s news conference. Steward said he “would fight” Fitzpatrick outside. Meanwhile, Haye-promoted George Groves, the British and Commonwealth supermiddleweight champion, was getting in the face of Wladimir Klitschko with his camera at every opportunity yesterday. Wearing a severed head T-shirt.
haye is great at selling fights. Regardless if he's going to get his face smashed in, he's made this fight the most anticipated fight in all of boxing in the past few years or so behind pac-floyd, and the biggest heavyweight fight since Lewis-Tyson.
And largely he did it by yappin his mouth. That's pretty genius if you ask me. This guy was a very good cruiserweight, but at heavyweight he really hasn't done much at all. Pretty incredible to get to where he's at right now by mostly talking.
And largely he did it by yappin his mouth. That's pretty genius if you ask me. This guy was a very good cruiserweight, but at heavyweight he really hasn't done much at all. Pretty incredible to get to where he's at right now by mostly talking.
I want Haye's to knock Wlad the fuck out. Haye is the only reason this fight is happening. Haye's was the one that talked the shit to get the ball rolling. Haye was the one to fight that big ass Russian while both Klitschko brothers made evey excuse in the world to duck dude. Haye earned this big payday he's the only reason anyone cares about the fight in the 1st place. Haye is coming to win and he's not fat and out of shape. When was the last time Wlad fought someone that was coming to knock his head off? Wlad has feasted on fat out of shape bums. Come Saturday he's going to be in a real fight. I just want to see two in shape heavyweights fighting to kill eachother like the old days.
It may be harsh but it's the truth. People in this forum (not you naner12) are always talking about fighters fighting shot fighters, but I'd say for the most part that is all the Klitschkos have done. Again, they are putting their life on the line each and every time they get in the ring I'm not taking that from them, but they are paper champions and are only champs because there aren't high quality opponents in the heavyweight division right now. How many great fighters have either of these guys beaten? And good opponents being beaten so soundly? How many good opponents have they fought?
So you're saying this version of Wlad is the best/prime version of Wlad? Ok. A prime Tyson, Holyfield, Lewis, Ali, Foreman, Frazier, Louis, Holmes, Walcott, Liston, Dempsey, Johnson, Marciano (who I don't even think is one of the best heavies of all time despite his record) and Moore DESTROY each of the Klitschkos.
So you're saying this version of Wlad is the best/prime version of Wlad? Ok. A prime Tyson, Holyfield, Lewis, Ali, Foreman, Frazier, Louis, Holmes, Walcott, Liston, Dempsey, Johnson, Marciano (who I don't even think is one of the best heavies of all time despite his record) and Moore DESTROY each of the Klitschkos.
Vitali in his prime would have been tough for a lot of fighters throughout history. He has a IRON chin and I've only really seen him wobbled/hurt once in his career. Wlad on the other hand with his crackable chin would have been KO'd by most of the greats that possessed power. Shit, even the heavy hitters that weren't all time greats like Ken Norton, Ernie Shavers, etc. would have KO'd his ass.
So it's one of those things where it's like yeah, quite obviously the Klitschko brothers are the best of this current era (since Lewis retired) but like HERSEY mentioned most of that is because how absolutely terrible the heavyweight division is.
Look at the resumes.
Wlad's best wins:
Chris Byrd
Samuel Peter
Eddie Chambers
Ruslan Chagaev
Sultan Ibragimov
Ray Mercer
With KO losses to Lamon Brewster, Corrie Sanders & Ross Puritty.
Vitali's resume:
Chris Arreola
Samuel Peter
Danny Williams
Larry Donald
Corrie Sanders
Herbie Hide
Shannon Briggs
there isn't a Hall of Famer on there. The best person either fought was Lennox Lewis, who Vitali lost to (although one could argue he could have won if not for the cuts, then again maybe not).
It's not their fault the heavyweight division sucks ass. But because they are dominating weak opposition doesn't mean they could have been trouble for past heavyweight greats. The only way to really judge a fighter is by the quality of the opponents they faced, and they really lack quality opponents...there just isn't any way around that.
The only ATGs that would have really struggled were the small heavyweights and the ones that didn't have too much pop. Rocky Marciano was 5′ 11″ and only weighed around 185 pounds (which today wouldn't even qualify as a heavyweight) so guys like that would just be too small, imo, then again Rocky was one of the greatest punchers of all time so if he could connect on Wlad who knows.
So it's one of those things where it's like yeah, quite obviously the Klitschko brothers are the best of this current era (since Lewis retired) but like HERSEY mentioned most of that is because how absolutely terrible the heavyweight division is.
Look at the resumes.
Wlad's best wins:
Chris Byrd
Samuel Peter
Eddie Chambers
Ruslan Chagaev
Sultan Ibragimov
Ray Mercer
With KO losses to Lamon Brewster, Corrie Sanders & Ross Puritty.
Vitali's resume:
Chris Arreola
Samuel Peter
Danny Williams
Larry Donald
Corrie Sanders
Herbie Hide
Shannon Briggs
there isn't a Hall of Famer on there. The best person either fought was Lennox Lewis, who Vitali lost to (although one could argue he could have won if not for the cuts, then again maybe not).
It's not their fault the heavyweight division sucks ass. But because they are dominating weak opposition doesn't mean they could have been trouble for past heavyweight greats. The only way to really judge a fighter is by the quality of the opponents they faced, and they really lack quality opponents...there just isn't any way around that.
The only ATGs that would have really struggled were the small heavyweights and the ones that didn't have too much pop. Rocky Marciano was 5′ 11″ and only weighed around 185 pounds (which today wouldn't even qualify as a heavyweight) so guys like that would just be too small, imo, then again Rocky was one of the greatest punchers of all time so if he could connect on Wlad who knows.
I can't agree here. Dempsey was close to six feet tall, by all accounts was baffled by the skills of the Tunney and it's well documented how many times he's hit the deck. Just for the record Walcott & Marciano are both shorter men than Dempsey. I don't see either winning at all. (not just cause of height)
Tyson would need to get to Wlad early, and he can most certainly do it, but if he didn't it's jab swallowing time until Tyson's inevitable breakdown and face crushing.
Holyfield & Frazier both would have a hell of a time getting on the inside and getting Wlad. They'd be able to do it but it wouldn't be enjoyable and I think they'd have a harder time than you think. (both would also be at a considerable height disadvantage to try to get inside)
Foreman would crush Wlad, I've always thought that. He'd have the chin to deal with Wlad early, the size and the power to knock Wlad silly.
My point wasn't that Wlad goes unbeaten throughout history. I don't think anyone, including guys you mentioned, would blow through him like he doesn't exist. Most of them didn't have to deal with a guy of such height AND skill. This isn't Luis Firpo or Primo Carnera, two men perceived as giants in their day who'd look tiny compared to Wlad.
As for good opponents that he's beaten? Peter (x2), Chagaev (in a Ring Magazine championship bout), Ibragimov, Byrd .. these guys are far from scrubs. Are they all time greats? Absolutely not, and Wlad hasn't beaten any, shame on what's around not him.
Wlad would compete in any era IMO. I think when all is said and done, he'll be remembered favorably.
..although David Haye could blow his face away and disprove my whole point completely.
Tyson would need to get to Wlad early, and he can most certainly do it, but if he didn't it's jab swallowing time until Tyson's inevitable breakdown and face crushing.
Holyfield & Frazier both would have a hell of a time getting on the inside and getting Wlad. They'd be able to do it but it wouldn't be enjoyable and I think they'd have a harder time than you think. (both would also be at a considerable height disadvantage to try to get inside)
Foreman would crush Wlad, I've always thought that. He'd have the chin to deal with Wlad early, the size and the power to knock Wlad silly.
My point wasn't that Wlad goes unbeaten throughout history. I don't think anyone, including guys you mentioned, would blow through him like he doesn't exist. Most of them didn't have to deal with a guy of such height AND skill. This isn't Luis Firpo or Primo Carnera, two men perceived as giants in their day who'd look tiny compared to Wlad.
As for good opponents that he's beaten? Peter (x2), Chagaev (in a Ring Magazine championship bout), Ibragimov, Byrd .. these guys are far from scrubs. Are they all time greats? Absolutely not, and Wlad hasn't beaten any, shame on what's around not him.
Wlad would compete in any era IMO. I think when all is said and done, he'll be remembered favorably.
..although David Haye could blow his face away and disprove my whole point completely.
^^ESPN = bunch of morons. The only thing they give a shit about really is the NBA (which they are financially invested in), the NFL and Tiger Woods.
ESPN is so counterproductive being that they have boxing on their own network! You'd think they would spend a little bit of time actually praising the sport and/or certain fighters to help increase ratings for their own Friday Night Fights. But instead they bash it every chance they get, which certainly can't help ratings being that a large chunk of people rely solely on ESPN for their sporting news.
ESPN is so counterproductive being that they have boxing on their own network! You'd think they would spend a little bit of time actually praising the sport and/or certain fighters to help increase ratings for their own Friday Night Fights. But instead they bash it every chance they get, which certainly can't help ratings being that a large chunk of people rely solely on ESPN for their sporting news.
