David Haye sets sights on Klitschkos after Audley
David ‘The Hayemaker’ Haye prepares for his Battle of Britain WBA heavyweight boxing title fight with Audley Harrison next month. He tells Channel 4 News he will then deal with the Klitschko brothers.
One wonders why he calls himself the Hayemaker. David Haye says he will be the first undisputed heavyweight champion of the world since Lennox Lewis in 1999. Haye wants to put British boxing back on the map.
Whatever happened to the sport that made Barry McGuigan? Those epic battles between Chris Eubank and Nigel Benn? Remember how the nation embraced Frank Bruno even though he did end up doing pantomime? And then Audley Harrison MBE, who won gold in Sydney but then, earned the nickname “Fraudley” for fighting no hopers.
All of them household names, but then boxing left prime time terrestrial television for satellite and its public profile slumped. They have brought in High definition. Now they have brought in 3D. Haye’s big fight is the biggest thing in British boxing for years.
The boxing world has been waiting for this for a long time: two British heavyweights slugging out for a world title. But why is the current champion, David Haye, fighting a man who promised the world a decade ago but has never quite delivered?
Battle of Britain
The Hayemaker told Channel 4 News: “I don’t need to (fight Harrison) no. I think it’s because the public demands it. There is no other fighter out there. Plus you want to have fights that people will remember.
“You know, people remember Lennox Lewis’ fight against Frank Bruno as opposed to Razor Ruddock or Andrew Golota. People know Frank Bruno so when everyone thinks Frank Bruno, Lennox Lewis, they think of Frank Bruno as a major fighter.”
At the gym where Haye first learned his trade as a skinny 10-year-old the Harrison fight is big news.
Alan Shnawa, light welterweight boxer, told Channel 4 News “it’s a good fight for British boxing anyway”.
He said: “Two heavyweights…the best heavyweights in Britain fighting it off. It hasn’t happened in a long while.”
Call it rooting for the local boy, but many do not give Harrison much of a chance.
They (Klitschko brothers) will get knocked out the same way Audley Harrison will get knocked out.
One boxer told Channel 4 News: “I think David Haye is going to smash him.”
The Klitschko brothers
The fight Haye needs if he is to be truly undisputed, the fight boxing fans really want to see, is one he turned down because he says he was tricked.
He had agreed to fight the Ukrainian Klitszcho brothers with four heavyweight belts between them, but they reckon Haye is just running scared.
Channel 4 News asked David Haye what he made of Wladimir Klitschko calling him a coward.
Haye responded by saying: “What have I lied about? I haven’t lied about anything. Him and his family are the only ones who have been lying.
“They will get knocked out the same way Audley Harrison will get knocked out. I don’t like looking too far into the future, because I want to focus on the short term. But you know I’m focusing everything on Audley Harrison and when Audley Harrison goes away I anticipate doing the same thing with him or his brother.”
He may yet of course be proved wrong, but British boxing might just be about to get itself a new star.