By James Slater – It really does seem as though David Haye has resigned himself to the fact that he will not be fighting Wladimir Klitschko. Though Klitschko still says the fight can happen on July 2nd, Haye says such talk is nonsense, as Wladimir will not fight again so soon after his April 30th bout with Derek Chisora. And haye has also made it clear: he will NOT extend his career for anyone, not even Klitschko.
If the fight doesn’t happen “now,” Haye says, “it will not happen” – because he is sticking to his October 2011 retirement promise. Haye, as has been reported, has opened talks with his mandatory, Ruslan Chagaev, and he told Sky Sports yesterday that he is now looking at taking some “memorable” fights in the ten remaining months of his career.
Haye also said it will be Wladimir, not he, who will have to live with being asked almost constantly why the unification fight failed to happen. Clearly, Haye blames Klitschko for the fight (apparently) falling apart..
“Fight fans just want to see the best against the best – if only it was that simple,” Haye told Sky Sports. “Very rarely in boxing do you get a situation where you have all the pieces of the puzzle, all the politics have been smoothed over. Then all of a sudden, he announces he is fighting Chisora, knowing I have to then fight Chagaev.
“To then fight me after is impossible. It is a shame he has shown his true colours. Once I retire, people will always ask him, ‘why did you not fight David Haye?’ and he will have to live with that. Hopefully, he is getting some serious stick, will read what the world is saying about him and then think, ‘okay, I will just cancel this fight and do the fight everyone wants to see.’ If it does not happen now, it never will.”
But is Kitschko “getting some serious stick” due to the fight falling apart yet again, or are people blaming both guys for the fiasco? As for Wladimir having a change of heart and deciding to cancel the Chisora fight so as he can fight Haye next: forget it.
So Haye moves on, and he says he wants to strengthen his heavyweight legacy as best he can without the Klitschkos being involved – starting with a fight with the once-beaten (by you know who!) Chagaev.
“I am not going to go down in history as the best heavyweight of all time, but I have got to be satisfied with what I achieved,” Haye said. “In these next ten months, I have got to get some memorable fights, which now has to start off with my mandatory challenger Chagaev. I have seen fighters who try to fight into their twilight years and you end up getting beat by younger, fresher, hungrier guys.
“I want to be one of the very few fighters who gets out on top, in their prime.”
Haye added that he feels Wladimir Klitschko will go down in history as a heavyweight who “just fought the worst possible people out there.”
It seems Haye will be content in retirement, knowing he achieved all he wanted to as a cruiserweight, as well as a decent amount up at heavyweight. But will the history books be so kind?