By Rick Reeno
Bernd Bönte, who manages heavyweight champions Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko, advised BoxingScene.com that a fight between David Haye and either Klitschko brother will never happen until the two sides reach an agreement for an even 50-50 split on all of the involved revenue.
Haye is refusing to share any of the revenue from his British television deal with Sky TV. In order to fight either brother, Haye wants to keep all of the pay-per-view revenue from Sky, and the Klitschkos can keep all of the revenue from their television deal with German network RTL. Following Saturday's knockout win over Audley Harrison, Haye remained firm on his position to keep 100% of the revenue from British TV.
Bönte considers Haye's proposal as a sucker's deal because the revenue generated from Sky pay-per-view will be significantly higher than the money involved with the licensing fee from RTL. Bönte would like to see both sides reach an agreement where everything is split down the middle - including the TV revenue, sponsorships, the gate, etc. And, Bönte tells BoxingScene that Haye's contract for the fight will NOT include any type of clause for a rematch, or future options.
"A Klitschko vs. Haye fight will never happen - if it is not 50-50 worldwide. And it would not be 50-50 if Haye were to keep [the] English pay-per-view money and we only keep the German TV licence, which is way less than the huge number of pay-per-view buys in Great Britain," Bönte told BoxingScene.com. "So either both sides put everything in one pot or that fight will never happen."
