Sauerland Pushing for David Haye to Fight Vitali Klitschko

Kalle Sauerland, who co-promotes former heavyweight titlist David Haye, hopes that the fighter won't retire in October as promised, and instead fight Vitali Klitschko. He told the Daily Star that the Klitschkos may not need Haye like they did before, but they still do need his star power:

"Realistically the ­Klitschkos still need David, no ­matter what they say, although maybe not as much as before Wladimir fought David. But when the figures are all ­finalised from David’s fight with Wladimir and all the TV money is in, the Klitschkos will realise they will have to fight three times to make as much money as from one fight with Haye."

... "David has a big-fight ­mentality. Against John Ruiz he was not motivated. But against Audley Harrison he was really up for it and he stopped the fight with venom. There will not be many fights that David will be up for, apart from the Klitschkos."

Unless David Haye beats a Klitschko, or at least gives one of them a tough fight, his reputation is probably irreversibly damaged due to not just the fact that he didn't back up any of his big talk against Wladimir, but he instantly infamously complained about his pinky toe in a move that was doomed from the moment he had the idea to take his boot off in the ring, let alone later stand on the table at the press conference to put it on full display.

Sauerland's bit about Haye's big fight mentality is, well...interesting. Haye appeared to be anything but "up" for the Klitschko fight, and the Audley Harrison matchup was a farce in every way. On the other hand, Haye was pretty fabulous against Ruiz, who was no all-time great by any stretch, but was a still-tough veteran who had held up over 12 rounds with a lot of solid heavyweights over the years, but got blitzed by Haye in what I still think was by far David's best heavyweight performance. So it's hard to see any realism in Sauerland's hype job here. Realistically, they probably just hope that David does fight Vitali, since it's still a big money fight, and even though Haye would be a really huge underdog, the story going in would be all about big, angry Vitali looking to knock Haye out and put the exclamation point on the Haye vs Klitschko rivalry.

Klitschko faces Tomasz Adamek on September 10.