by David P. Greisman
Three clichés, taken together, tell this tale: All bark and no bite. Talk is cheap. Seeing is believing.
This is how we must think of David Haye:
As someone who yapped and yapped and yapped about how he could run with the big dogs of the heavyweight division, Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko.
As someone who hounded the Klitschkos, only to later muzzle himself and turn tail.
And as someone who has claimed he could be best in show but still has yet to enter himself in the competition.
How fitting the metaphor is, then, considering Wladimir Klitschko’s description of Haye: “Bitched out.”
That was April, when the younger Klitschko took to YouTube to call Haye out. The brief video was in black and white, clear and concise, just like the message Klitschko was sending. No need for embellishment. The shot held the camera frame steady on Klitschko’s face, intense and imposing – and that was without including the rest of his formidable 6-foot-6, 245-pound frame.
“David, you’ve bitched out on fighting both Klitschko brothers twice already,” Wladimir said. “Now’s the time to make it happen. … I’m officially calling you out to fight me. David, you can’t run away from me forever, and you need to follow through with this fight to get respect. I’m ready. What are you waiting for?”
That was nearly three months ago.
It has now been a year since Wladimir Klitschko and David Haye were originally supposed to fight. Haye, citing a back injury, pulled out of their bout, which had been scheduled for June 20, 2009. Though Haye was eventually medically cleared to fight for July 25, 2009, Klitschko did not have a lucrative German television date for that night. Klitschko had already made the choice to face Ruslan Chagaev on the June date instead, a win that cemented Klitschko as the true heavyweight champion.
It has now been nearly a year since David Haye pulled out of negotiations to fight Vitali Klitschko, opting to fight Nikolay Valuev for the World Boxing Association heavyweight title. Haye bristled at the terms of the contract he would have signed to face either of the Klitschkos.
“It would have been like selling my soul to the devil,” Haye said at the time in a news release. “I will not be a slave fighter. Once I have snatched Valuev’s title, I will be happy to battle out heavyweight supremacy with the Klitschkos, but only on equal and fair terms. As the WBA heavyweight champion, I should be able to meet them without having to sign my life away.”
The contract called for a fight with Vitali, and if Haye won that fight, either a rematch with Vitali or a revenge bout against Wladimir. And if Haye won that second bout, there could have been a third fight with one of the brothers.
Haye had signed a version of that contract for the canceled bout with Wladimir. “If it’s the only way these chumps will get in the ring with me,” Haye said in April 2009, “it’s what I’ve got to do.”
His outlook had changed by the time negotiations were under way for a fight with Vitali.
Wladimir, following his stoppage of Chagaev, spent the remainder of 2009 recovering from surgery. Vitali wrapped up 2009 with a technical knockout over Chris Arreola and a decision victory over Kevin Johnson. Haye captured a world title with a majority decision win against Valuev.
Wladimir returned this year in March with a mandatory title defense against Eddie Chambers, knocking him out with five seconds left in the final round. Haye made a mandatory defense of his own, a ninth-round stoppage of John Ruiz.
Haye-Ruiz was April 3. Days after the fight, Haye’s manager was quoted as demanding a 50-50 split of the money for any fight with either Klitschko. Days after the fight, Wladimir called Haye out on video.
That was nearly three months ago.
In that time, Wladimir Klitschko’s camp gave David Haye what he wanted: a 50-50 split of the money and no contractual clauses calling for additional bouts against either brother, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN.com.
In that time, Haye turned down the exact offer he was looking for.
Wladimir Klitschko has since moved toward a fight against mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin. Klitschko’s promotional outlet bid more than $8.3 million for that fight, nearly twice what the second-highest bid would’ve paid both fighters. Povetkin is earning more for this bout than he has for any fight before.
Vitali Klitschko had a keep-busy bout in May against Albert Sosnowski and is now entering negotiations for a fight against Nikolay Valuev.
Haye was rumored to be in negotiations to fight his underachieving fellow Brit, Audley Harrison. Haye denied that, though: “At the moment we’re talking to the Klitschkos, trying to make that deal,” Haye said about two weeks ago in the Derby Telegraph.
He sounded like a scorned ex-boyfriend telling himself that there was still a chance a pairing could survive, oblivious to the reality that the Klitschkos have moved on to other dance partners.
No more trash talk. Barely a peep from the fighter or his camp. Not a word about how he has yet again failed to sign for a fight with either Wladimir or Vitali Klitschko. Nothing.
David Haye spoke cockily from the moment he moved to the heavyweight division. He anointed himself before he had accomplished anything in the weight class, naming himself the future king, wearing a T-shirt depicting him holding the decapitated heads of the to-be-deposed rulers.
Those have proven to be premature proclamations.
The most dangerous killers do not announce their arrival. The most feared predators slink silently before they strike.
Snake-oil salesman talk. And brag. And promise. And fail to deliver.
Haye may yet face a Klitschko. Or both. He might even beat one. Or both. But we will not know if he can until he does, and to do that he must put his name – and his reputation – on the dotted line.
No more barking. Talk is cheap. Seeing is believing.
The 10 Count
1. Covering whether Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. have signed to fight each other yet in 2010 is like covering whether George W. Bush or Al Gore had won the presidential election in 2000.
Florida has gone to Gore. Florida has gone to Bush. Florida is too close to call.
Pacquiao-Mayweather is almost a done deal. Pacquiao-Mayweather still has some obstacles in its way. Pacquiao-Mayweather is off, and it’s all Ralph Nader’s fault.
2. Here’s where the Pacquiao-Mayweather uncertainty stems from:
Last week, multiple news outlets quoted Bob Arum as saying that negotiations were done and the fight now hinged only on Mayweather’s signature.
“[T]he only issue is whether he wants to fight in November,” Arum told Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports.
“This really depends, as I see it, on whether Mayweather wants to fight [Pacquiao],” Arum told Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated. “By mid-July, he’s either in or out. We’re not going to wait forever. We’re going to have a fight on Nov. 13 and we would love it to be Mayweather.”
“We’re waiting on Floyd,” Arum told our very own Rick Reeno of BoxingScene.com. “Floyd has to decide whether or not he’s going to fight this year or next year or not at all.”
But…
But…
But, well, there’s this from Dan Rafael of ESPN.com: “[D]espite Arum’s talk that all the points are agreed to and they are awaiting Floyd’s approval […] in fact all points are not agreed to.”
Sigh.
3. If former newscaster Dan Rather covered boxing, he’d let loose something like: “One’s reminded of that old saying: ‘Don’t taunt the alligator until after you’ve crossed the creek.’ ”
Can you imagine a conversation between Dan Rather and Larry Merchant?
I’m trying not to.
4. The metaphorical wisdom of Teddy Atlas, as brought to you on ESPN2’s “Friday Night Fights” before and during Round 7 of Demetrius Hopkins-Mike Arnaoutis:
Before Round 7, with Atlas narrating footage from earlier:
“Arnaoutis makes peanut butter sandwiches without the jelly. There’s the peanut butter. He gets inside, but he goes out again. And here comes the peanut butter again. He gets inside, but no jelly. He doesn’t punch. You gotta make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, Arnaoutis, otherwise you’re not going to win this fight.”
And as Round 7 got under way, Joe Tessitore talked about how Arnaoutis’ trainer told Arnaoutis between rounds to get his hands moving. Atlas jumped back in:
“With the jelly, with the peanut butter. I’m not even talking about the glass of milk. We’re not even going that far.”
No, no, Teddy, you’d gone far enough.
5. Does Teddy Atlas not hit up catering before his “Friday Night Fights” broadcasts?
Two more examples:
June 18, 2010: “Berrio’s the kind of guy, you know, if he goes to a restaurant, he doesn’t look for the appetizer. He’s not looking for the starters.” … “He’s looking for the entrée.” … “I’m not even sure he’s using a knife and fork.”
June 6, 2008: “The bad news about Hill using that jab, that table setter, he needs to sit down for the whole main course. You know, at this point being so far behind, that table setter, the jab, not gonna get it done. He needs to eat behind it, with a right hand.”
It could be worse. I’d rather have Teddy’s metaphorical wisdom center around his hunger than around, say, him needing to go the restroom.
6. Boxers Behaving Badly update, part one: Cory Spinks was sentenced last week to a year of probation after pleading no contest to a misdemeanor charge of drunken driving, according to the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel.
Spinks, 32, was arrested in April. In exchange for his plea, prosecutors dropped a charge of leaving the scene of an accident. The former welterweight champion and current 154-pound titleholder was also sentenced to 200 hours of community service and fined $500.
Spinks is 37-5 with 11 knockouts. His last appearance in the ring was in April 2009, a split decision over Deandre Latimore that won him a vacant 154-pound title.
7. Boxers Behaving Badly update, part two: Prosecutors have dropped their case against cruiserweight fighter Nicholas Iannuzzi, who had been looking at a considerable amount of time behind bars over an alleged incident with his now-former girlfriend, according to The Tampa (Fla.) Tribune.
Iannuzzi, 33, was arrested in April and accused of attacking the woman, grabbing her neck, punching her and then putting a gun to her head. Police said Iannuzzi told the woman: “This is a hair trigger. I can blow your brains out, then kill myself.”
Prosecutors said there was probable cause – enough evidence to bring charges – but that they could not prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt.
Iannuzzi, 34, is 15-1 with nine knockouts. He last fought in March, winning a 10-round decision.
8. Boxers Behaving Badly, part one: Undefeated welterweight prospect Kell Brook was found guilty last week of assault, according to British newspaper The (Sheffield) Star.
Brook, 24, punched a nightclub manager who told him he couldn’t go into the women’s restroom. You read that right. Brook sent out a body shot and then a blow to the head, all because he couldn’t go into the ladies’ room.
Gives new meaning to “pissed off.”
Brook is 21-0 with 14 knockouts. He is scheduled to face Michael Jennings this September in a welterweight title elimination bout. No word yet on whether that bout will need to be postponed – Brook’s sentencing hearing has yet to come.
9. Boxers Behaving Badly, part two: Tony Salam, a Nigerian boxer who fights out of the United Kingdom, was found guilty of “sexual assaulting a woman and holding her prisoner in her own home,” according to a brief report in the London Evening Standard.
Salam, 26, will be sentenced July 28.
He was 9-1 (5 knockouts) as a pro fighter, competing between super middleweight and light heavyweight. His last fight was just last month.
10. For those of you keeping track of such things:
Kell Brook is not allowed in the ladies’ room. But Ben Roethlisberger is…
David P. Greisman is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. His weekly column, “Fighting Words,” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com. He may be reached for questions and comments at fightingwords1@gmail.com
