David Haye vs Wladimir Klitschko – Pre-megafight mismatches all part of the plan?
by Ian Ritchie
In one of the most ridiculous World Heavyweight Title mismatches I’ve ever witnessed, David Haye barely came out of second gear on Saturday to blow away an obviously undeserving challenger in Audley Harrison.
The fact Harrison managed to land just a solitary punch in the entire fight, spells this out for exactly what it was – a marketing ploy.
Anyone with a decent knowledge of boxing, knew beforehand that Harrison barely even had the fabled “punchers chance” that was being banded about in the press, and he certainly had much less than that given he barely threw, much less landed, a single telling punch.
While it won’t go down in history, it will certainly have done Haye’s bank balance no harm.
It is also believed to have removed the final option Don King had over him, following the promotional contract Haye signed to make the Valuev fight, which brought him the WBA heavyweight title, and with it, the significant jump in Haye’s fame and popularity within the UK.
While Haye’s stock can’t get much higher in the UK than it is right now, the public won’t continue to lap up mismatches like that witnessed on Saturday.
With boxing largely resigned to Pay Per View on these shores, it is more important than ever to provide value for money.
It was clear from the many boos echoing around the MEN Arena in Manchester in the opening 2 rounds and the general reaction afterwards that this “fight” most certainly didn’t provide that.
It is fair to say that the pre-match hype brought more drama than the event itself.
While a lot of the blame is being heaped in the direction of Harrison for failing to show up and make it into even half a contest, it must also be taken into account that Haye allowed this obvious mismatch for his WBA title to go ahead, and he must shoulder at least a portion of the blame.
All will be forgiven if indeed, he follows through with his post-fight promise to ensure a Klitschko fight in 2011, but prolonged negotiations and protracted drawn out contract disagreements have so far failed to churn out THE fight everyone wants to see.
While Haye’s stock may be on a crest, Wladimir Klitschko remains somewhat of an enigma in the UK, despite clearly being the best heavyweight in the world for the past 5 years.
He doesn’t possess a crowd-pleasing style or display devastating examples of knockout power, but he has found a way to make winning look easy.
Perhaps he is a victim of his own success, because it is difficult to knock a winning formula that has brought him 13 successive victories, along with the IBF, WBO and IBO world heavyweight titles.
There is no doubting he is classy, both in and out of the ring, but it has gone largely unnoticed in the UK, because he hasn’t been granted the same exposure that has been bestowed upon previous heavyweight champions of the world.
That is all about to change on December 11th, when he takes on Briton Dereck Chisora, live on Sky Sports for his heavyweight crowns.
It is an opportunity for the rest of Britain to witness how devastatingly easily he can win, in a match-up perhaps only marginally more of a threat than Audley Harrison posed.
Few people give Chisora much of a chance, but he is also somewhat of an unknown quantity. He isn’t very defensive minded however, and with that in mind, he is the ideal opponent to look good against.
Should Klitschko come through as expected, then it makes the timing almost ideal to finally turn the Haye vs Klitschko fight into a reality.
Haye vs Klitschko simply MUST happen.
For the good of the sport, for the good of the heavyweight division, and most definitely for both fighters’ legacies.
With the Klitschko’s network TV deal with RTL coming to an end also within the next 2 fights, the timing may simply be “too” good.
There is a strong feeling that the fight has been drawn out for so long, with the preceding mismatches, simply to remove some 3rd parties from a “slice of the pie”, and to ensure the best possible income for both fighters, given there isn’t likely to be an easy way back for either of them, should they suffer defeat.
You can’t really argue with the logic. It may be a frustrating wait for the millions of fans waiting on this fight to happen, but now, more than ever, it seems we may finally be about to witness the biggest heavyweight fight since Vitali Klitschko fought Lennox Lewis. For some, the wait has already been far too long for a heavyweight superfight, but that additional fact probably promises both fighters some life-changing rewards to make it happen.
Haye’s insistence on a requirement to keep more than a 50% share of the purse, or a desire to keep the full UK Pay Per View pot appears to be the biggest stumbling block.
While it should be admired that the Germans have managed to keep boxing away from pay per view, it doesn’t help the Klitschko’s cause, in Haye’s argument.
Haye should take heed of a cautionary note however.
The British public have backed him well throughout his career, but they will not keep paying for nonentities akin to the Harrison fight.
He needs them just as much as they need him, and the true value of this fight is in the collective.
He cannot simply keep turning up and expect to get paid a premium without stepping into the ring against a premium opponent.
The Klitschko’s are almost exclusively, the sole “premium” opponents in the division, and he would do well to bear this in mind when making negotiations.
Let’s hope the Harrison and Chisora fights really are just a means of “beefing up” the main event.