Haye Klitschko is falling apart- Talks Suspended

[Lance Uppercut]

By Dan Rafael of ESPN.COM

W. Klitschko-Haye not as close as you might think - ESPN


W. Klitschko-Haye not as close as you might think



For months, there's been talk of a proposed June 20 fight between heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko and David Haye, the former cruiserweight champ who moved up to heavyweight late last year. Although the deal might ultimately be finalized -- and there is still plenty of time to get it done -- it's a lot further from being set than some might lead you to believe, namely the British press.

The media speculation I've been reading makes me laugh because the breathless prose from the Brits, who have anointed Haye as the savior of the heavyweight division, make it sound as if the fight is done.

It's not, even though Emanuel Steward, Klitschko's trainer, was quoted throughout the British press in recent days as saying he thought a deal was imminent because Wladimir had called him to ask him what the size of the ring should be so it could be specified in the contract. The British media and Steward jumped to the conclusion that the question meant the deal must be about done if they were down to such nitty-gritty terms. Steward had also mentioned the bout would be at the 02 Arena in London.

However, the fight is not close to being made and if it gets done, it won't be at the 02.

The plan called for the bout to be at Stamford Bridge, a soccer stadium in suburban London that could accommodate more than 40,000 for a fight.

After seeing the comments from Steward and continually reading about the imminent deal, I got in touch with Bernd Boente, the one man who could truly explain what was going on because he has handled Klitschko's business dealing for years, managing him and older brother and fellow heavyweight titleholder Vitali Klitschko.

Boente cleared things up quickly, telling me of the deal, "We are pretty far away from each other and the fight definitely won't be at the 02 Arena. It is occupied that night."

Haye has been talking trash in the British press in an attempt to land a heavyweight title fight, first directing it toward Vitali, whom he thought he would originally face, and then against Wladimir, to whom his verbiage turned once Vitali elected to make his mandatory defense against Juan Carlos Gomez on March 21 rather than risk being stripped of his belt by facing Haye. Once it was settled with which brother Haye and his manager/trainer Adam Booth, who also runs Haye's Hayemaker Promotions, should negotiate, the sides started working on a deal for the June 20 fight at Stamford Bridge, the arena that Haye brought to the table.

Klitschko, being the true champion that he is, never had an issue about fighting in Haye's home country.

Even though Klitschko would have preferred to fight earlier than June 20, that was the date they targeted because of Haye. With the soccer season going on, the stadium wouldn't be available until then. Also, the date worked for the three major television networks that would be involved in the fight -- HBO in the United States; the United Kingdom's Setanta, which has a contract with Haye; and German network RTL, which has a contract with Klitschko.

The stadium, and all of the potential revenue it could bring, was a major reason Klitschko settled on Haye as his first choice. Lord knows it wasn't because Haye had done anything to warrant a heavyweight title shot -- unless he deserved it based on less than six rounds in the division, a first-round knockout of obscure Tomasz Bonin in a 2007 heavyweight trial run followed by a shaky fifth-round knockout win in November against Monte Barrett (a man, by the way, who Klitschko crushed in seven rounds in 2000 in England on a Lennox Lewis undercard).

Anyway, while the Brits were reporting a virtual done deal for a fight in the wrong building, Boente told me that Booth had told him that they were pulling out of the stadium deal because of concerns over the deepening worldwide economic crisis.

"They backed out of the stadium because of the economy and now we have to negotiate everything new," Boente said. "That [stadium] was a huge portion of the deal. Otherwise, Haye is not bringing much to the table."

Even without the stadium, Haye is still asking for a significant slice of the revenue.

"We are absolutely willing to do the fight, but we have to start all over again to bring them down from their high horse. Adam is very inexperienced. He may be a good coach, but he's definitely not a good manager. If he's not taking this chance, do you know how long it will be before Haye is in a mandatory position? It will take a long time. This is a unique chance for Haye and they are being so greedy. If Haye had a name like Lennox Lewis or Evander Holyfield in their best days, we would have additional money from international sales. But that is not the case."

Boente said he and Shelly Finkel, the American adviser for the Klitschkos, had always been a little wary about the stadium and Haye's ability to draw a big crowd. Ricky Hatton and Joe Calzaghe, he ain't.

Boente saw it up close when he was ringside with Vitali for Haye's fight at the 02 Arena against Barrett.

"I heard they maybe sold 3,000 tickets and there weren't more than 7,000 or 8,000 people there," he said. "They had to hang curtains to close off the upper part of the arena. So we were always a little wary of the stadium, but they were our co-promoters. But now we will have to see about the fight. I would personally still love to do it at [Stamford Bridge], but now we have to look for something brand new and see what is interesting. And also the deal with Haye has to be new because we gave him way more than even a mandatory challenger would get. A mandatory challenger would get 25 or 30 percent [of the money], but he was getting a lot more than that. But that was before, because he brought the stadium to the table. They said they cannot be so sure of the stadium with the economic climate."

Boente said Booth told him Hayemaker Promotions was willing to cede the entire promotion to Klitschko's company, K2. Of course, that means Hayemaker would not be at any financial risk.

"They said they would just keep all of the English television rights," Boente said. "Why would we do that? If you think you'll keep all the money from English TV, what are you bringing to the table to get so much more than a mandatory challenger? They think they are bringing a superstar to the fight when he's fought [six] rounds in the heavyweight division.

"Before, it was an interesting deal, but now he would just be a regular challenger. And we were honoring [the contract Haye has] with Setanta when for any other fight we would have negotiated with Sky TV or ITV or maybe put it on pay-per-view [in the U.K.]."

Boente said if they can't re-work the deal with Haye, American contender Cris Arreola was an option, even though Arreola's next move is supposed to be an April 11 fight on HBO on the undercard of Paul Williams-Winky Wright.

"We always told Shelly to make sure that [Arreola promoter] Dan Goossen knows that whatever contract they sign that there should be an exit [clause] for a title fight," Boente said.

He made it clear that Haye remained Klitschko's first choice, but only if it makes economic sense.

"It does not make sense to fight him if he doesn't bring more to the table than a regular challenger like Hasim Rahman or Tony Thompson," Boente said. "Why pay him more than a mandatory challenger? And he was complaining about options. Let him go fight Ruslan Chagaev or Nikolai Valuev and see how many options their promoters ask for."