By Terence Dooley

When David Haye removed his right boot in order to show Sky’s Adam Smith his damaged little toe in the wake of his lopsided point’s defeat to Wladimir Klitschko many members of the boxing public shook their heads and thought, “Dave, don’t do this”, before listening to his line of reasoning. 

However, it was not the time and place for this type of thing.  Even if you give Haye the benefit of the doubt and view the toe injury as one of many legitimate reasons for his defeat – although it lags well behind Wlad’s jab, ability and ring intelligence on the list of factors – rather than as an excuse the unveiling of the sweaty foot and injured pinky left a bit of a stink.

Fans have grown accustomed to this type of post-fight interview.  Haye is not the first nor will he be the last and the line, “No excuses but…”, is now up there with, “I’d like to thank God”, in the canon of boxing clichés. 

The 25-2 (23) former title holder has since admitted that he lost to the better man.  Many, this writer included, felt that he would be able to get to Wlad only for the Ukrainian to prove himself too big, too strong and ultimately too good for the ‘Hayemaker’, who can consider going the distance at the Imtech Arena, Hamburg a consolation prize of sorts considering the dominance ‘Dr. Steelhammer’, now 56-3 (49), displayed during the unification bout.

Indeed, the writing was on the wall for the WBA titlist as early as round one, Klitschko peppered Haye with jabs and illegally bundled him to the canvas with ease.  Showing his strength and causing me to recall the way in which Lennox Lewis opened up on Mike Tyson early in their meeting to force Mike under his psychological spell en route to a dominant KO performance. 

Talk aside, bluster removed, there is no shame in David’s losing to the 35-year-old Goliath.  A lot of the ire directed towards Haye has veered from very venomous to utterly dismissive, which is fair enough given that the 30-year-old put himself up for such criticism during the build-up to the fight.

Haye’s perceived excuse, however, has attracted its own unique brand of half-the-timer (not sure exactly what this means but it sounds apt) speculation, with some feeling that he was duty bound to either withdraw from the fight, no chance of that given its protracted genesis, or come clean about his injury ahead of the first bell, which was never going to happen. 

Lennox probably summed it up best, pointing out that “You need ten good toes” going into a major fight but, crucially, that boxers have come through hand injuries, dislocated shoulders and other problems to win critical contests.  Conversely, Haye has explained that the injury restricted his movement, threw his plans into disarray and was a huge factor in the loss, although he has since played it down and lavished praise on Wlad for his dominance.

Not since images of Sarah Ferguson receiving a “toe job” from John Bryan hit the front pages has such a little thing cause such a massive stir.  The irony being that had Haye kept the injury quiet and somehow prevailed he would now be couched in heroic Churchillesque terms, “Never in the field of boxing combat has one little toe overcome so much pain for so many travelling fans etc.”, rather than cast as a pariah.

Ironically, BoxingScene received word on Saturday morning that Kevin Mitchell’s fight against John Murray, scheduled for the ExCel Arena, was being pushed back a week and moved to Frank Warren’s July 16th ECHO Arena show in Liverpool.  We ran an exclusive on this story and correlated concerns that Mitchell had been in and out of training and was therefore struggling to hit the lightweight limit ahead of the make-or-break match. 

I did Kevin a disservice.  It transpires that although he had been out of training it was due to a viral infection.  An illness that had impacted on his final weeks of fine turning and, one presumes, weight reduction to the extent that Mitchell requested an extension to the fight date in what could be one of the bravest moves in a career that has seen ‘Mighty’ Mitchell show serious stones in fights against Carl Johanneson and Breidis Prescott.

Unlike Haye, Mitchell rolled the dice, took a risk and asked for a recovery period, prompting claims that the ExCel show was failing to sell, the Londoner had lost his bottle or that there was no infection and his training camp was in disarray for other reasons.  Damned if you do and damned if you don’t.

In taking the decision to reschedule, Mitchell has endeavoured to ensure that his final weeks of preparation are as productive as possible and that when the camera is pushed into his face post-fight we won’t hear the expression, “Firstly, I’d like to thank God.  I’ve also got something to tell you about my physical condition going into this fight.” 

No, in admitting that, “I want to face Murray when I'm fully fight fit so there
are no excuses.  I'll be fit and ready for July 16th and fans will
see the best of Kevin Mitchell,” the 26-year-old Londoner has tried to give himself the opportunity to tackle the marauding Murray “Machine’s” style and hand the 26-year-old WBC #2 contender his first defeat.

It has also resulted in a Liverpool bill that is stacked – Tony Bellew-Orville McKenzie II, Ricky Burns versus Nicky Cook and Frankie Gavin against Curtis Woodhouse – and freely available to Sky subscribers after a 2010-2011 season that has promised much only to deliver relatively little.

The most ironic aspect of this decision is that Mitchell is being criticised just as heavily as Haye this week, one guy for postponing, one for not performing due to a physical impediment, proving true the idea that (some) boxing fans don’t discriminate, they hate everyone and everything.

Should Mitchell win he will have given himself a great chance to get back into contention and lay to rest the ghosts of his brutal third round stoppage to Michael Katsidis.  After which Mitchell admitted that he had not prepared properly due to personal problems and paid the price. 

Lessons learned, perhaps, for Kevin and a tutorial for other fighters who are toying with the idea of withdrawing from fights unless 100% fit – you will get lambasted if you withdraw and criticised if you point out that you should have pulled out so forget everything else and do what is best for your future career.

As for Haye, he was made to toe the line by a bigger, better boxer, the broken bone will be forgotten about and the reality will crowd in.  The truth is that wins over Nikolay Valuev, John Ruiz and Audley Harrison does not a heavyweight legacy make.  When the dust settles, the Londoner’s only impact on the heavyweight history books will be in the form of a few mentions in the chapter dealing with the Klitschkos.  Not ideal, but far from a disgrace and he still has the cushion of his cruiserweight career to fall back on.

Sure, Haye will be ridiculed for a few months by the 6’ 8’’, Noble Prize winning championship athletes that are so prevalent on Internet forums yet he can look back on his career with a measure of pride as long as he keeps that toe where it belongs and ensures that it never again sees the light of day, especially with Sarah Ferguson single and on the prowl.

Coda:

Praise Mitchell for his pragmatism yet spare a thought for the men who were set to populate the undercard of the ExCel show and have not been able to secure berths on the packed ECHO bonanza.  Dean Byrne, Paul and Stephen Smith and Billy Joe Saunders will now have to wait for their next fights, particularly frustrating for Saunders as he looked excellent against Kevin Hammond last time out.

As it stands, Murray-Mitchell has claimed a few casualties yet if it lives up to its potential, and if both men are at their optimum performance level, if may yet prove to be type of encounter that raises the pulse, lifts spirits and injects a bit of optimism after a year that has seen British boxing and Sky TV lurch from one disaster to another.

Sky have made money on their PPVs but lost a lot of long-term faith in their paid platform and may now ditch it for all but mega-fights, and there aren’t many of them about.  Haye losing his crown is another blow for the broadcaster and one or two PPV bills that failed to catch fire heaped pressure on new Sky boxing boss Adam Smith, who has a lot of work to do ahead of next season.  It has been a good one for the cynics, though, as boxing has proven that year in, year out the one thing we can expect from the sport is a heap of disappointment with the odd glimmer of hope.

Here’s hoping that the ECHO Arena does not reverberate with “I ain’t making excuses but…” come July 16th.  Fingers – and toes where not impeded by injury – crossed.  Murray should be good to go, with the 31-0 (18) pressure fighter so keen to engage in this domestic decider that he would punch any illness that tried to stray into his system.

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