David Haye vs. Wladimir Klitschko is On, WBA/IBF/WBO Unification
The following was just posted on www.hayemaker.com The official website of David Haye.
WBA heavyweight champion David Haye has agreed terms to fight IBF/WBO champion Wladimir Klitschko on either June 25 or July 2 at a venue in Germany. The consensus top two heavyweights in the world finally struck a deal and signed contracts on Friday evening, setting the wheels in motion on the biggest boxing event of 2011.
After years of negotiating and posturing, Haye and Klitschko are now set to officially collide in the most important heavyweight showdown for nearly a decade and, in doing so, will unify three of the recognised world heavyweight belts.
Speaking of the latest twist in the saga, Haye said: “I always believed we’d one day fight and I’m glad we’ve cut through the nonsense and put together the most important fight in the heavyweight division.
“This is the match the boxing world has been calling for since I first decided to step into the heavyweight division, and I feel it is my destiny to fight and beat Wladimir Klitschko. We are the best two heavyweights in the world and it would have been a travesty for us to have never fought.
“This is an inevitable fight with an inevitable conclusion. Wladimir Klitschko is getting violently knocked out.”
The 30-year-old Haye is the current WBA heavyweight champion of the world and a former WBA, WBC and WBO world cruiserweight king. London born and bred, Haye ventured to the heavyweight division in 2008 and would eventually defeat and dethrone seven-feet-two-inch former champion Nikolay Valuev in November ’09. Haye has since defended his belt twice, with stunning knockouts of mandatory challenger John Ruiz and British rival Audley Harrison, and has altogether crushed 23 of 25 beaten opponents inside schedule.
A mainstay of the heavyweight division, 34-year-old Wladimir Klitschko is the reigning IBF and WBO world champion. He is a two-time WBO champion and has defended that particular belt nine times throughout the course of his fourteen-year professional career. Nicknamed ‘Dr. Steelhammer’, Ukrainian Klitschko has stopped 49 of 55 beaten foes inside the scheduled distance.
“I have been chasing this fight since day one, because I know boxing styles and I know which styles I have success against,” said Haye. “Klitschko is ready-made for me. I eat tall, chinny Eastern European heavyweights for breakfast. Wladimir is a fighter that doesn’t like to fight, and he has admitted that fact in the past. Unfortunately for him, I am a fighter that loves nothing more than fighting.
“I have the heart of lion, whereas Wladimir has the heart of a hyena. He cries and squeals and slips into the wilderness at the first sign of danger. Wladimir has proven this over the years, and I’m certain he will want no part of this lion when it finally comes time to go to war.”
Details of date and venue are expected to be finalised in the coming days.