WBA continuing roundabout title scene at heavyweight
by SC on Nov 23, 2009 5:32 PM EST
in News Analysis
8 comments
In an attempt to keep things mundane and unexciting, the WBA has ordered -- for whatever reason -- an interim heavyweight title fight between former full titlist Ruslan Chagaev and Kali Meehan.
The WBA has been somewhat sharply criticized in recent years for seeming intent on keeping the belt between Chagaev, Nikolai Valuev and John Ruiz. When David Haye beat Valuev for the title on November 7, it marked the first time since 2004 that anyone other than Ruiz, Valuev or Chagave held the title.
Now, Haye is set up for a challenge from Ruiz, while Valuev holds a rematch clause and the Chagaev-Meehan winner (likely Chagaev) will be in line for a title shot.
In other words, even if Haye gets past Ruiz, and then the Chagaev-Meehan winner (the WBA says that will go next), he then will have to field the rematch request from Valuev.
Haye has attempted to convince the world once again that he wants to fight the Klitschkos, feeling his standing as a heavyweight titlist will make negotiations and contracts more fair this time around. Reportedly, he pulled out of a June fight with Wladimir due to injury, then pulled out of a September fight with Vitali due to the bad contract. Without Haye, Wladimir beat Chagaev to claim the Ring Magazine championship, and Vitali beat Cristobal Arreola.
The central question might be this: Is David Haye going to hang on to this belt for too much longer? He's doing the Ruiz fight, and he'll probably do the Valuev rematch because it's contractually obligated, but at what point is he going to be sick of taking challenges from the WBA's Three Amigos? A win over Ruiz really does put him right in position for a money fight with the Klitschkos. Wladimir will fight Eddie Chambers or Alexander Povetkin next spring when he's back from surgery, and Vitali is already fighting again in December with Kevin Johnson. Frankly, they're going to run out of opponents.
Why would Haye want to then fight Chagaev (or even worse, Meehan) and again Valuev when he could just drop the belt and move on with his life? It's not like the WBA title is some shining example of greatness or anything. I know boxers think more of the belts than many of us do, but this is taking it to the extremes.
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The central question might be this: Is David Haye going to hang on to this belt for too much longer? He’s doing the Ruiz fight, and he’ll probably do the Valuev rematch because it’s contractually obligated, but at what point is he going to be sick of taking challenges from the WBA’s Three Amigos? A win over Ruiz really does put him right in position for a money fight with the Klitschkos.
Maybe the question is, “is that what Haye really wants?” I’m a little suspicious at this point, with all the nonsense that went on this year. It’s always possible that Haye wants exactly the sort of Heavyweight career that Ruiz, Valuev and Chageav have/had. He won’t earn vast riches and glory that way, but he’ll still get paid well to fight once or twice a year against so-so competition, while the K brothers get older and older.
"This fight'll be the nastiest thing you'll ever see. I been sober for six weeks, and that makes me vicious."
-- Randall 'Tex' Cobb
by jrok on Nov 23, 2009 6:00 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
nahhh
Haye has ballz trust me, he has the desire and he wouldn’t want to be veiwed as someone who bottled it, trust me
by Sweet science on Nov 23, 2009 6:31 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
I’m just saying, Haye passed up Vitali for Valuev. That’s just a fact, and there’s really no getting around that. Haye went from a guy who claimed he was going to beat both K brothers in 2009 to a guy that doesn’t realistically look like he’ll be fighting either one until 2011… if then.
"This fight'll be the nastiest thing you'll ever see. I been sober for six weeks, and that makes me vicious."
-- Randall 'Tex' Cobb
by jrok on Nov 23, 2009 6:48 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
David Haye has a big ego, and apparently limitless self-confidence. He’s also made it clear that he’s aware that the Klitschkos are the men he has to beat in the division in order to be recognised as a great champion, which seems to be his ultimate goal.
For me, the proof that he was still interested in fighting the Klitschkos arrived after the Valuev fight, when practically the first thing he did was express his desire to unify with them. When there are so many other challenges out there that people want to see (Adamek, Arreola etc.), he had no reason to bring them up as his desired opponents, other than a genuine desire to want to fight them.
If he is content to go the safe route, and fight the parade of WBA-approved challengers that will be dangled in front of him, then he’s certainly going about it in a careless manner that will open him up to accusations of cowardice. And David Haye does not want to be thought of as a coward
by thirdslip on Nov 24, 2009 12:38 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
For me, the proof that he was still interested in fighting the Klitschkos arrived after the Valuev fight, when practically the first thing he did was express his desire to unify with them.
But that’s proof of nothing. It’s all a bunch of lip service until it actually gets done, and right now Haye’s career decisions have potentially put such a fight in the distant future. From the sounds of it, Booth and Haye acted like a couple of children at the negotiating table the last time around, so even if Haye was serious getting the deal done at this point might be even more difficult now if David suffers from the delusion that the WBA belt gives him that much additional “clout,” and he’d have to vacate it anyway if we we’re going to see Haye fight a Klitschko before the end of next year.
"This fight'll be the nastiest thing you'll ever see. I been sober for six weeks, and that makes me vicious."
-- Randall 'Tex' Cobb
by jrok on Nov 24, 2009 10:05 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
If Haye drops the WBA belt, would he still be obligated to re-match Valuev?
I am not sure Haye needs the belt. I’d rather see him use his Golden Boy contacts to get HBO on board, and then try and make exciting match ups with guys like Adamek and Arreola.
I don’t mean that he should avoid a Klit brother. I just think that if he involves himself in exciting fights with recognisable heavies on American TV, he won’t need the belt to fight a Klitschko – the public would demand it regardless.
by Falstaff on Nov 23, 2009 7:52 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
Not that he’d be guaranteed wins over Adamek and Arreola, btw. Far from it.
by Falstaff on Nov 23, 2009 7:53 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
If Haye drops the WBA belt, would he still be obligated to re-match Valuev?
Maybe, kind of. They could just pay their way out of it, or Valuev’s team might consider a vacating of the belt to be enough.
Bad Left Hook
"Well Howie, I think I'm going to stay outside and outjab him." -- Tex Cobb telling Howard Cosell how he would approach Larry Holmes
by SC on Nov 23, 2009 9:11 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
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