By John F. McKenna (McJack)
Former WBA heavyweight champion David Haye (25-2, 23 KO’s) set the bar high prior to his title unification fight with WBA/IBF/WBO/IBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (56-3, 49 KO’s) last July 2. Haye basically got his title shot with Wladimir through his gift of self promotion. In “The Hayemakrer’s” case his self promotion was trash talking. Haye took trash talk to a new level. Haye’s brand of trash talk was so successful that many boxing observers and insiders gave him a real shot at upsetting “Dr. Steelhammer”.
Haye brought an excitement to the heavyweight division that it had not seen in decades. The excitement was contagious and for a brief time brought the heavyweight division back to the forefront of boxing.
Haye relied on unconventional methods to draw attention to the fight. In one instance he showed up at a press conference designed to hype the fight with Wladimir wearing a “T” shirt which depicted the severed heads of the Klitschko brothers. While raising the ire of the Klitschko’s the incident had the desired effect of drawing huge attention to the fight. The fact that the fight had previously fallen apart only served to whet the appetites of boxing fans.
The match was the first Klitschko fight aired by the cable giant HBO in years which served to illustrate boxing fans interest in the bout.
Almost every comment by Haye served a two fold purpose. One was to arouse interest in the fight while simultaneously getting under Wladimurs skin. Haye did draw the interest of boxing fans, but he failed miserably in attempting to unnerve Klitschko. In a further attempt to insult Wladimir, Haye said he would leave him “whimpering” on the canvas. Through it all Klitschko maintained his composure.
After all the hype and trash talk boxing fans had reason to believe that they would witness a pretty good fight, in which Haye would at least make an effort to make the fight competitive.
Instead what they got was “The Hayemaker” constantly flopping to the canvas when Klitschko was close enough to do damage. In essence Haye embarrassed himself and lost virtually every round. The thousands of British fans who traveled to Hamburg, Germany to watch the fight live were bitterly disappointed.
After retiring on October 31, which was Haye’s 31st birthday word came out a few weeks ago that Haye will take on Vitali Klitschko, probably in June or July of 2012. Apparently he will make an effort to redeem himself, possibly in Wembley Stadium.
