By Mark Vester
WBA heavyweight champion David Haye broke his silence on the failed negotiations to make fights with WBC champion Vitali Klitschko and younger brother Wladimir Klitschko, the WBO/IBO/IBF champion. Haye went into detail on the contract negotiations, why the fights continue to fall apart and why the negotiations will continue to fall apart in the future. The majority of Haye's venom was aimed at the recent negotiations to make a fight with Wladimir.
"I wanted 50/50. That's what I said from the start. If you give me 50% maximum of all of the territories, of all the ticket sales....the fight is going to happen. He didn't want that to happen. The reason being, he's tied into a TV contract. He's got a multi-fight deal with RTL, a German television network. I know there's more money to be had in Germany because I've been talking to the television networks and there's more money to be had," Haye said. "He's not willing to put the maximum from his territory into the pot. I'm doing that. He's not doing that and that's totally unacceptable for me."
"I gave him an alternative. [I said] you keep 100% of your RTL money and I can keep 100% of the UK money. We split everything else 50/50 and we get the fight done. [He said] no. He totally didn't answer that, didn't accept that, and the fight is not happening because of that. I gave him two options. He flat out refused both of them."
Haye then took shots at Wladimir's opponent for September 11, Samuel Peter, and Vitali's choice for October 16, Shannon Briggs.
"He signs to fight Samuel Peter....someone that his brother smashed to pieces the other day, and his brother signs to fight Shannon "Asthma Pump" Briggs. I'm going to be announcing another opponent. I'm not willing to submit to their crap. They think they deserve it their way...I don't."
