Venue confirmed for Haye fight

[fugaziuk]

FRANKFURT (AP) — Wladimir Klitschko's defense of his heavyweight title against David Haye on June 20 will be staged at Schalke's soccer stadium, which has a capacity of more than 60,000.

The arena in Gelsenkirchen, where Schalke plays its Bundesliga matches, seats 61,673 for soccer matches and has a retractable roof that can be closed in 20 minutes. It will be the first fight to be staged there.

"I've always wanted to fight in a football stadium before such a large audience," said Klitschko, who holds both the IBF and WBO titles.

Bernd Boente, managing director of Klitschko's management group, called it one of the "most attractive and modern" stadiums in Europe, a "gigantic arena."

Haye is a British former cruiserweight world champion who could win the heavyweight title in only his second fight at that class.

Klitschko stopped Hasim Rahman in seven rounds in his last defense in December and hasn't lost in more than four years to build a 52-3 record to Haye's 22-1.

Haye moved up a division more than a year ago after unifying the cruiserweight titles by knocking out Enzo Maccarinelli in two rounds. He has had only one fight as a heavyweight, knocking out Monte Barrett in five rounds in November.

Confident that he will beat Klitschko, Haye has vowed to then go after his older brother Vitali, the WBC champion, in an attempt to unify the heavyweight titles.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.


Im going to look into going to this - anybody else?

[Fenster]

60,000 seater?

Guess Haye is a bigger draw than many think.

[ono]

[ono]

[Kel]

Should have been here

[smashup]

Great news and what a venue

Can't see more than 5,000 going over from the UK to support Haye though.

Let's face it the majority of people outside of boxing probably don't know who he is and he's no Hatton.

Think they'll struggle to fill it unless every fight fan in Germany makes it which may happen due to the "Event" itself and the fact the venue looks so appealing

Think it's a big ask for UK fans to flock over given theres a recession going on

Gonna be a great fight though and exactly what the Heavyweight division needs to give it a kick up the ass.

I Still think Haye can win this!

[HattonTheHammer]

only chance haye would of had of winning this is if they`d held it inside a london phonebox

[littlebif]

What a poor city to choose for the fight, what is there to do there anyone know

[fugaziuk]

There are flights to dusseldorf from leeds-bradford for around £50 - and its about an hours train ride from airport to venue. think im gonna try and make this with ticket and hotel should be around £200 - much cheaper than going to see hatton

[fugaziuk]

Looking at stuff on the web - seems Gelsenkirchen used to be a huge industrial town in ww2 and has suffered great amounts of unemployment since (the highest in germany!) - plus used to be the venue for a concentration camp!! so great if you are into history but it seems the football club is all the city has to offer - what a strange place to hold the fight!

[Mark TKO]

its as if they want to deter us Brits from going....