Heavy Tactics: David Haye Prods Vitali Klitschko, George Groves Annoys the Brothers

Gareth A Davies has a good article up at the Telegraph that sort of outlines the many ways that David Haye has tried to annoy, rile, wind up, and piss off Wladimir Klitschko during the press conferences and promotional time for the Saturday world heavyweight championship fight, but a couple of things in particular stood out.

First, Haye has George Groves in one of those famous decapitation shirts trying to annoy Wladimir:

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.

He also had one of his coaches, Paddy Fitzpatrick, make some claims about Emanuel Steward (Klitschko's trainer) using illegal hand wraps in the past. This led to Steward challenging to fight Fitzpatrick outside. Now, it's not hard to get Manny Steward riled up, nor do I think it's particularly helpful, so the point here is to just further enrage Wladimir.

And it adds up -- on the HBO Faceoff segment, Max Kellerman pointed out that Wladimir doesn't get too offended or angry when the prodding is directed toward him. He seems less upset about Haye's infamous t-shirt because it had him decapitated than that it featured brother Vitali also decapitated, and that it upset their mother. So perhaps he's hoping that annoying anyone Wladimir cares about will, in fact, more enrage Wladimir than simply calling the man himself boring or whatever.

Haye also was quick on his feet to get Vitali involved when the elder Klitschko gave him a chance:

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."

Wladimir has been pretty cool and collected, so this tactic just might be the only thing that will work. He doesn't rattle when Haye talks to him, but he can be angered, and Haye obviously thinks that's the way to take Wladimir out of his usual zone.