Make way for David Haye: Boxing’s savior

April 7, 2009

Best news I’ve heard all week? David Haye will be facing Wladimir Klitschko on June 20.

This is the first heavyweight boxing fight that I’ve looked forward to since, oh, Lennox Lewis vs. Mike Tyson in 2002. And if all goes well, I think this could be the fight that propels boxing back into the limelight.

That’s right, forget about Manny Pacquiao vs. Ricky Hatton. Haye vs. Klitschko is a hell of a lot bigger in more ways than simply the size of the fighters involved. And apparently the boxing world agrees, because this IBF and WBO title fight will be held in Schalke’s soccer stadium, which seats more than 60,000 spectators. Amazing.

The reason I have such high hopes for this fight is simply due to David Haye’s involvement in it. He’s young, brash, exciting, good-looking, and British. Essentially, he’s the anti-Klitschko. But it takes a little more than to dethrone the methodical Klitschko. This will only be Haye’s second fight as a heavyweight (he defeated Monte Barrett in his November debut), and he will be facing arguably the best heavyweight in the world. So, it remains to be seen if he can out-muscle Klitschko.

One thing’s for certain, though: Haye can beat Klitschko in the trash-talking department. Take a look at the above video. Notice the spectacle he was able to create when he tracked Klitschko down at a press conference last year. This is exactly what boxing needs, and I am not ashamed to say that I’m desperately hoping that see Haye save the boxing world from the long nightmare that has been the Klitschko era.

After the jump, “Dr. Steelhammer” tries to talk some trash, but fails miserably.

This was after Klitschko defeated Hasim Rahman in December. I would talk about this fight a little more, but I fell asleep 10 seconds into round 2.

  1. 6 Responses to “Make way for David Haye: Boxing’s savior”

  2. Wow! Boxing needs to plaster David Haye all over every talk show, sports show in the States. Then boxing may, if only for a brief moment, see a return in the interest of Heavyweight Boxing.

    By Jim Gallagher on Apr 8, 2009

  3. This will be Haye’s 3rd fight at Heavyweight not 2nd.

    By David Stuckey on Apr 8, 2009

  4. According to boxrec it’s his second…

    http://www.boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_id=155774&cat=boxer

    By Ariel Helwani on Apr 8, 2009

  5. 4th one down on Boxrec list: Tomasz Bonin was at Heavyweight 217lbs.

    By David Stuckey on Apr 8, 2009

  6. OK, fine. You win. But that one doesn’t really count for me…

    By Ariel Helwani on Apr 8, 2009

  7. anything but the klitchkos.

    By Kevin on Apr 8, 2009

Post a Comment