David Haye, Adam Booth "desperate" to secure fight with either Klitschko

by SC on Jun 30, 2009 7:59 AM EDT Comment 5 comments

David Haye's manager says he'll go anywhere to fight one of the Klitschkos. (via img.thesun.co.uk)

Reports out of the UK are that heavyweight David Haye is "getting desperate" to land a title shot against one of the Klitschko brothers, and that his manager Adam Booth

Booth insists Haye will travel anywhere to get his wish of a world title shot, but admits that current negotiations hang in the balance.

"We don't mind where it is as long as it's in a boxing ring," Booth told The Mirror.

"Everything is very sensitive at the moment. There are a lot of negotiations and discussions going on in different directions.

"I'm just doing what I can to make something happen for David."

Booth was criticized by some as mucking up negotiations for the scrapped Haye fight against Wladimir that was scheduled for June 20, with rumored credit going to Golden Boy's Richard Schaefer for getting the deal back on track and, eventually, done.

With Alexander Povetkin ready to exercise his mandatory against Wladimir (reportedly), all hope appears to be for Haye to face Vitali, the WBC titlist who recently won a court battle allowing him to take an optional defense. Haye has been just one of a few names mentioned, along with Chris Arreola and Nikolai Valuev.

The good news for Haye is that HBO is highly interested in a David Haye fight with at least Wladimir, which makes for attractive American money. The bad news is that with Setanta going under, there is less money to get the fight done from Haye's side. The Setanta collapse cannot be understated. Sure, it's likely Sky would want to pick up Haye against a Klitschko, but they have all the chips in that bargaining process.

0 recs | Comment 5 comments | Share

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

If I were David Haye, I'd be desperate too

He knows that with his chin, there’s the potential that he ends up being a knockout victim against almost anyone he could face. Still, he needs to be a bit more active, and he’s not going to get a Klitschko fight right now, especially with no significant TV money coming out of the UK. If I were him, I’d try taking a stay busy fight against someone like Timo Hoffmann, or some other tall German fighter without a huge punch. Then, (a) he gets practice in against a tall fighter, (b) he builds up his name in Germany, and © he can move a little bit up the ABC rankings.

Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."

by Brickhaus on Jun 30, 2009 10:56 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

agreed on the stay active part. He’s often spoken with disdain regarding the heavyweight division in general, so I don’t think he’s that concerned that his chin might be a liability against almost anyone, he probably believes he’d be too quick/would get back up to knock them out. So he should go and show that (again) already…

We're all given some sort of skill in life. Mine just happens to be beating up on people. (Sugar Ray Leonard)

by BrianBrock on Jun 30, 2009 3:51 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Klitschko(s) v. Haye

I wonder if either one of the Klitschko’s would accept a fight with Haye right now, considering how he pulled out of his fight with Wlad under shady circumstances. With Wlad v. Povetkin looking good, Vitali may just look elsewhere to a Valuev or a Chambers simply out of spite. Haye may have done himself real damage by backing out of the Wlad fight, even considering the monetary damage of Setanta going under (or the supposed injury). He’s going to have to take a fight against another fighter, presumably a good fighter, and since Haye’s not a natural heavy there remains a good chance he doesn’t make it through that fight.

by Joshua-Trull on Jun 30, 2009 12:55 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I don't remember who proposed it

But Haye-Arreola. Hell if Bute-Andrade 2 doesn’t go down on PBF JMM put Haye-Arreola on the undercard.

Gimme 1 round!

by ItBurnzWhenIP on Jul 1, 2009 6:15 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Haye-Arreola would need a lot more than undercard money to happen

Fortunately, that fight could probably sell out the Staples Center with a decent undercard of its own, so I doubt HBO would need to kick in more than their standard WCB fee to make it happen. I doubt either fighter would do it for BAD money though.

Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."

by Brickhaus on Jul 1, 2009 6:50 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs