Steward: We Need Klitschko-Haye, Pacquiao-Mayweather

By Mark Vester

Speaking with Gareth Davies of The Telegraph, trainer Emanuel Steward said the sport of boxing is being hurt by the lack of mega-fights. To help boxing progress to a higher level, the two biggest fights need to happen - Wladimir Klitschko vs. David Haye and Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr.  Steward trains Wladimir, who is the WBO/IBO/IBF heavyweight champion. He can't understand how two fights, which involve millions of dollars for all of the connected parties, are unable to get made.

“The public makes the mega-fights,” said Steward. “The public wants to see two fights in boxing right now, one between the big men and one between the little guys. They want to see Manny Pacquiao against Floyd Mayweather, and they want to see Wladimir Klitschko against David Haye. Simple as that, and it is the public who decides these things.

"They are both massive fights…and they can’t be made. I have serious concerns about the future of boxing when the two biggest fights in the world, potentially generating hundreds of millions of dollars, can’t be signed. Everywhere I go, people ask me whether the fight is going to happen (between Haye and Klitschko). My honest assessment is that I really don’t know if it will.”

Years ago, Steward said the process was much easier when it came to making a big fight, and there were less egos involved. He said it only took 15 minutes to make one of the best fights of all-time, Thomas Hearns vs. Sugar Ray Leonard.

“It took 15 minutes to make the Tommy Hearns, Ray Leonard fight. I flew into an airport, we did the deal over a coffee in the coffee shop in the airport, and I went back on the same plane. The public had made the fight,” Steward said.

“Today we have the egos stopping the fights the public wants to see. We have the same problems with Klitschko-Haye and Mayweather-Pacquiao. Everyone wants to see David Haye meet Wladimir Klitschko. What’s happening right now is simply hurting boxing, killing it."