by James Slater – I was at The Irish Centre in Leeds last night, enjoying the latest instalment of boxing pundit Steve Bunce’s live show. The former host of the now sadly defunct Setanta Boxing Hour, has taken his now two hour show on the road, and the interviews, Q and A sessions and just plain old chat is indeed great fun.
After yesterday’s show was over, I managed to grab a pint and fifteen or so minutes with Steve, and here are the answers he gave to my questions:
James Slater: I really appreciate you sitting and talking with me, Steve. I can see you’re busy signing things and doing photos, etc. Can I ask you first about David Haye. It’s all about Haye right now, due to his win over Valuev. A lot of people don’t seem to like Haye still. In America especially it seems, they don’t rate him and they’re slagging him off. Let me ask you, did Haye, a bright guy, purposely get a year’s free publicity by claiming he wanted to fight the Klitschkos, only to be scared all along and fake a back injury to get out of the fight with Wladimir in June?
Steve Bunce: The back injury was genuine. Why would David Haye pull out of a fight against Wladimir in front of what would have been 70,000, when if he’d have hit Wladimir with anything above the shoulders he’d have knocked him out, like he will do in the future. That was a genuine injury. Now here’s the thing, was it an injury that stopped David Haye walking from A to B? No. Was it an injury that stopped David Haye from driving a car? No. Was it an injury that stopped him sitting on a plane for six hours? No. But was it an injury that stopped David Haye from throwing punches in a crisis? The answer is yes. That’s David’s reasoning [for pulling out of the June fight]. There are medical reports out there that back that up..
J.S: People have also said Haye kind of pulled the rug out from under us, because he excited us all about the fight – the T-shirts, the severed heads, etc. And then Vitali said, okay, fight me instead now that the Wladimir fight’s off, and Haye said he wouldn’t be a “slave fighter.” Your thoughts?
S.B: Two things. If he’d fought Waldimir in June we wouldn’t have seen the David we saw in November beating Valuev – we would have seen a different David. He would’ve got closer, like he did occasionally, three or four times with Valuev, and he would have thrown those punches to try and win, because he knew, David knows that against a Klitschko he won’t be able to run for 12 rounds. And David Haye is a brave, reckless fighter. I didn’t think he could run like that against Valuev, and I’ve known him since he was eleven or twelve years old. And I’m telling you now, I didn’t think he had that in him, he surprised me. Against a Klitscho he wouldn’t have done that, he couldn’t have done that, because they’re too clever. They wouldn’t have allowed him to run – he’d have had to have a fight.
Now against Vitali, the Vitali fight’s about to be announced, let’s get this right. The Vitali fight’s done and dusted, but on the day he [Haye] does a deal with Kali Sauerland. Now here’s the thing, without going into specifics, he’s probably made ten times as much for beating Valuev. He’s managed to get unbelievable amounts of publicity by beating Valuev. Why do you think that sold almost a million sales on Sky? It wasn’t because they hate the Russians, the British public. It wasn’t because they love David Haye. It’s because they were intrigued – the whole David and Goliath thing. That wouldn’t have happened with a Klitschko. The British public would not have sucked that in as much. It was a brilliant business decision by David Haye. He pulled off what I call a heist. He’s gone to Germany and he’s come back with all the money and the title. A dreadful fight to watch, but the German people got into it, too.
J.S: A lot of critics will still ask, though, and some of this is my opinion: is Haye a better business man than he is a fighter? Does he really want to fight the Klitschkos? Will he get in with those guys now?
S.B: I’ve known David since he was 12, and I remember him then being fearless. He is fearless. He will fight the Klitschkos. He was meant to fight Wladimir in March, remember. That fight never really came to fruition and Wladimir was angry with that. So then the date was June 20th, and then he’d agreed to fight Vitali. He’d agreed to both those fights. But if David and the medical fraternity say it was a back injury, it was a back injury. We can’t say it wasn’t, we’ll get sued. So he doesn’t fight Vitali, and the reason he doesn’t is because he ends up getting unbelievably more publicity and at least ten time the money for fighting Valuev. Do I think in my wildest dreams that David is afraid of the Klitsckos? Let me tell you something, he’s now in a position where he can go to the Klitschkos, sit down with them, and get something like parity. That is the bottom line. David Haye fights a Klitschko now, he’s not going to get nine or ten times what he would have got first time round – he’s going to get THIRTY times what he would’ve got first time round!
J.S: So Haye has a bargaining chip now? He can go to the Klitschkos and demand a better contract, because he knows their goal is to unify all three belts?
S.B: The Klitschkos are fighting Chris “nobody knows” Arreola, ok? They’re fighting Sam Peter, who couldn’t sell a ticket in Nairobi, where he’s from. They’re fighting Kevin Johnson, and no disrespect to Kevin Johnson, but he and Zab Judah’s fans share the same taxi when they go to fights. And I mean that nicely. It doesn’t mean Johnson’s a bad fighter, it doesn’t mean Zab’s a bad fighter. By the way, Chad Dawson’s fans are also in the car – he’s driving it, he’s working! It doesn’t mean either of those three are bad fighters, but they’re not sellers. So, of course the Klitschkos want David Haye. When the Klitschkos first did a deal they wanted to fight at Chelsea, because they thought they’d get all the promotion and they were going to sell 50,000 tickets. They were told – you’ll love this – they were told by people inside the British boxing industry, some of the more famous promoters, that, quotes, unquotes – David Haye doesn’t sell. So they thought, we’ll have the fight overseas. They sold 30,000 tickets in the first twelve hours. David Haye’s a great self publicist. He may be in that elite group of self publicists that’s got Muhammad Ali at the top. David might be in the top-three. I’m telling you, don’t ever underestimate that, and don’t ever imagine that David Haye is afraid of anybody. But why should he fight a Klitschko for peanuts now? Should he fight a Klitschko for what Arreola brings to the table? Absolutely not.
J.S: Obviously, the next question is people have said he didn’t fight Klitschko because Setanta went down the drain. Is there any truth in that?
S.B: There needs to be a little bit of revisionist history here. Haye pulls out three or four weeks before Setanta goes down the tubes…
J.S: But did he know it was going to happen?
S.B: No, because at that stage there was a new Russian billionaire who came in, and there was a mood of serious optimism. David Haye’s money was guaranteed. It was done, it was dusted. He was going to get paid. Unfortunately, two or three weeks after David pulled out, so did the Russian billionaire. When David pulled out, we had a saviour in the Russian billionaire. His name I’ve forgotten, but it was in the papers, if you want to find his name – it’s all kosher. He pulled out on Friday the 19th, which was the day before the Haye fight. We all forget, David pulled out in May. At that time Setanta had a billionaire backer that was going to save them. Look at the Financial Times, it was on ITV and BBC news – we had a saviour, brother! When Haye pulled out, we [Setanta] were still living. That’s important. That’s fact.
J.S: Moving on. You were at Nottingham Arena for the Froch-Dirrell Fight, as was I. A lot of people are still moaning that Dirrell was robbed. Some American fans are saying that was one of the worst decisions this year – I can’t wait to see what they say in Ring magazine when it comes out. I had Froch up by four points. You?
S.B: I had Froch up by three, two rounds and then the extra point (that was deducted from Dirrell). Dirrell thinks he just did enough. He thinks he just did enough, Gary Shaw said he just did enough as well. It was only later on, when they read the threads on the British sites, that they thought, “Bloody hell. We’ve got a case here.” I’ve gotta tell you, it was a stinker fight, clash of styles, and without a doubt, Carl Froch thought it would be easier. He thought it would be a doddle – that this unbeaten, untested, spoon-fed kid would collapse after 5 or 6 rounds. So after 5 or 6 rounds, when he was probably a couple of rounds down, when the kid hadn’t folded and he’d look good, Carl had to start panicking. So, it was an ugly fight, not dissimilar to Haye-Valuev. But a great event, let’s get it right.
J.S: Putting you on the spot, Steve – who wins “Super-Six?” I’ve read some experts say Froch will not win another fight in the tournament and that he has virtually no chance against Mikkel Kessler! I can’t agree.
S.B: No, I can’t agree. There’s two things – first of all, we don’t even know if Kessler’s going to beat Ward in Ward’s backyard. Let’s assume he does beat Ward, then he fights Froch in Copenhagen – that’s Froch’s type of fight. The winner of Super Six, in my opinion, is either Froch or Kessler.
J.S: (jumping in) What about Abraham?
S.B: Nah. Look, Arthur Abraham’s great, but the bigger super-middles will work him out, they’re just that much bigger than him. I still fancy Froch to win Super Six.
J.S: That’s not you being jingoistic?
S.B: No, not at all. Froch is a better fighter than the one who fought Dirrell. He’s held his hands up and admitted he got his tactics wrong in that fight.
J.S: Can Dirrell do the same thing to Abraham, and make him look bad also?
S.B: I think he can. In those big rings they’ve got in Germany. They’re enormous and in my opinion Abraham is nowhere near as clever as Froch and nowhere near as big as Froch. Yeah, I think he [Dirrell] can. Dirrell could be the spoiler here, because that fight [Vs. Froch] made Dirrell a better fighter.
J.S: I really appreciate your time, Steve. Final question: After Jermain Taylor’s brutal knockout, will he retire and be replaced in Super Six?
S.B: In all fairness, the man I would get in is Sakio Bika. You want a guy who can go 12 rounds, and has gone 12 rounds. Allan Green will either get hit on the chin or he’ll hit someone else on the chin and he ruins it. I agree, I’d like to see Jermain Taylor out of the tournament. Although, I think he’ll stay in. I think he’ll think he can go 12 rounds with Ward, who I believe is his next fight. And that could create even more of a problem, because if he loses on points to Andre Ward, then he’s two fights in and then he pulls out, because I’m not sure who he has for his next fighter after that. I’d like to see Bika come in because he’s tough and hard. I think it’s a brilliant tournament, I think it’s the future of boxing. We really need to sell this.