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David Haye arrived in Germany just recently for his Saturday fight with WBA heavyweight titleholder Nikolai Valuev, and in typical Haye fashion, he found something to say, and he did so in a rather hilarious fashion. From Haye's blog at The Sun:
We were booked on the ridiculously early 7am flight and that meant I had to be packed and out the door at 5am.
Given that we train very late in the evening and didn't finish until midnight, I ended up getting zero hours sleep on Sunday night.
That was annoying, but nothing I couldn't handle.
The most frustrating part was still to come, as when I reached German soil I was guided towards a disgusting hotel, with a dingy room.
After a quick call or two, we managed to depart the rancid lair with our legs and arms still intact.
We actually ended up at a lovely five-star hotel, though we had to pay for the five-star privilege. Still, if it saves us from the guaranteed Black Death of the first place, it will be well worth the price.
These are the sort of mind games and tactics you have to put up with when fighting abroad.
They rattle some fighters, while others refuse to ever box on foreign territory. The foreign promoters are always looking to give their guy any possible advantage and they'll look to screw you around left, right and centre if they think it's going to unsettle you.
So Haye is already saying he's had "sleeping problems," but he's framing it in such a comical manner that he probably never had any single problem with it whatsoever. The guy goes a bit over the top sometimes, but it's this sort of humor that makes me really like him. I mean that whole thing is funny.
Valuev did respond, though:
"I don't care whether he can sleep or not," said Valuev. "And I don't really care about what hotel he stays in."
Short. To the point. Effective.