The Klitschko-Haye Fued, Episode 2
Published by on January 12th, 2009

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By Scoop Malinowski

The most exciting and colorful heavyweight rivalry – at least media-wise – since possibly Ali-Frazier in the 1970′s has continued to tremble and boom, with a mega-eruption apparently set to blow sometime this summer. Yes, Wladimir Klitschko and David Haye are still waging a fascinating psychlogical battle, which in our latest installment here in “Episode 2″ has witnessed a new character enter the drama as a primary player – older brother Vitali Klitschko.

Vitali Klitschko was asked to do TV analysis in London for a British television station for Haye vs. Barrett last November, which Vitali agreed to. Haye and Vitali seemed to get along with mutual respect, Haye was respectful of Vitali and Dr. Iron Fist praised Haye’s performance and admitted he was impressed by Haye’s speed. Before Haye defeated Barrett by the spectacular fifth-round KO, Wladimir spoke about Haye at his own press conference for Hasim Rahman and said, with a sinister smile, “My fingers are crossed that David Haye will win,” alluding to the desire he has to get his own fists on Haye in 2009.

After the fight, things began to change though. Team Haye said that Team Klitschko were now offering Vitali to face Haye in June of 2009. “We can do it where ever they want, with whatever brother,” said Haye. “I just want to get one of the Klitschko brothers in there. Once I’m in there I’ll get him out of there, guaranteed.” An agreement was supposedly reached but not officially signed. “(Vitali) is the more dangerous fight and that’s the one I wanted. If I had knocked Wladimir out in a round people would say, ‘He’s been knocked out by Corrie Sanders and Lamon Brewster and knocked down numerous times.’ I wouldn’t have got the credit for beating Wladimir. They would have said, ‘Why don’t you fight his big brother who’s never been knocked down and who was beating Lennox Lewis until he got stopped on cuts?’

Haye’s trainer/Manager Adam Booth said: “(David) has such phenomenal speed of hand and foot he could potentially make the Klitschko brothers look just as bad (as Monte Barrett). I don’t care what weight (Haye will come in at vs. Klitschko). He has to be able to deliver his punches from out of range with speed and power.”

Haye says he saw flaws in Vitali’s big win over Samuel Peter: “There’s so many things I saw that he did that I can exploit with my speed and power.”

The rivalry heated up considerably on the weekend of December 3 in Mannheim, Germany where Haye traveled to watch from ringside, Wladimir’s total but conservative domination of Rahman. Again Haye verbally trashed Wladimir’s performance in the media. “I dozed off for a few rounds,” said Haye. “It was way too unspectacular for my liking. Way too many jabs, way too much waiting for the guy. He was actually waiting for the guy to fall over before he threw a poweful punch. It was pretty embarrassing stuff but he got the win and that’s what it’s all about. He had the perfect opponent to look spectacular against and knock out in spectacular fashion and he failed abysmally. He did what he normally does. He was as unspectacular as he ever has been and jabbed people to sleep. He either loses or he’s in a stinker.”

Haye continued: “He knows that I’m hot on his heels. Vitali is here and he’s telling me he wants to shut my big mouth up. Vitali’s knows my power. But I don’t think he’s expecting me to be as effective as I was with Monte Barrett. It’s no secret Vitali is the bigger stronger brother. I said to his face, ‘Let’s make this fight happen.’ He said, ‘Cool, let’s do it.’”

Haye continued to denigrate Wladimir: “Against a guy like Hasim Rahman – overweight, out of shape, he was just there to pick up a paycheck – I’m not that kind of guy. I’m here to bring a ruckus. I’m here to bring pain to this guy.”

After the victory, Wladimir was asked by HBO commentator Max Kellerman about Haye’s persistant calling him out. “I haven’t heard David Haye,” smile, Wladimir looking out to the crowd. “He’s been loud and crazy but I don’t see him here tonight.”

Later that weekend, the Klitschkos and Haye were at a restaurant together where Haye supposedly showed Vitali a magazine photoshop of Haye holding the head of Wladimir, which, according to reports, enraged the WBC Heavyweight champion who had to be restrained. Wladimir was also witness to this insult and according to my source, showed for the first time an extreme disdain of Haye. And while there is a general perception from some uninformed observers that Vitali has come to the rescue of brother in this situation, actually it’s not true. And Wladimir vehemently wants a match with Haye for himself, as he has been craving a marquee, mega-event type challenge to test his skills on the big stage in a huge showdown, rather than the basically meaningless fights he’s had against the likes of Ibragimov, Austin, Brock, Thompson, Brewster, Byrd, which did not quite capture the imagination of the public. As it’s been said, “Great fighters have trouble getting up for mediocre fights.” Haye is just the type of big-mouthed and popular character Wladimir needs at this stage of his career after two years of dominating and pounding overmatched challengers. A lot of ring observers believe Haye would beat Klitschko and this is the kind of test Wladimir is starving for – to get his juices going, to prove his critics wrong.
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In the preceding month, plans for Vitali to fight Haye have suffered a blow as the World Boxing Council has mandated Vitali to defend the title against #1 contender Juan Carlos Gomez by March and then he must face former champ Oleg Maskaev immediately after, with risk of being stripped if he ignores the order from President Jose Sulaiman. Meanwhile, Wladimir is free to make optional defenses until the Fall when he is obligated to face his #1 contender Alexander Povetkin.

Will Vitali attempt to pay Gomez and or Maskaev step-aside money so he can meet with Haye in London this summer? Or will Wladimir take on Cristobal Arreola in Los Angeles in May? Or will it be Haye in June? A lot of questions remain. A lot of drama will be played out. So stay tuned for “Episode 3″ coming soon…