Comments Thread For: David Haye Talks Retirement, Klitschko, Acting Career

[Weltschmerz]

he'll fight Wlad next year, win and maybe or maybe not fight Vitali. either way i am putting money on Haye if the Wlad fight happens. the odds should pay off.

I doubt he'll fight a Klitschko ever, he's too chicken. Either K bro would punish him badly, and he knows this, so he keeps ducking.

[crillz]

I like David haye but he needs to press harder for a fight against Wladimir, Wladimir already called him out so Haye should make a public offer to him. he got Harrison on his mind right now but he really should try harder for a unification match, that should be the centerpiece of his focus being that he is so sure he will retire next year, Wladimir and Vitali are 2 tough fights to cram into 1 year so he needs to get on his job

[Dave Rado]

But saying that 50/50 is not acceptable, would be a blatant career-ending duck, and would also be a stoning offense as far as even casual fans are concerned.

But he's already said that, so how is he going to back down without losing face?

[Dave Rado]

I like David haye but he needs to press harder for a fight against Wladimir

Are you really unaware that Wlad offered him 50/50 with no rematch clauses and that he turned it down? And that the 50/50 offer is still open? The only thing he needs to press harder is his pen against the contract.

Wladimir already called him out so Haye should make a public offer to him.

He did - he "offered" Wlad well under 50/50 (with Haye getting the lion's share of the purse), in response to being offered 50/50 by Wlad - which was such a ridiculous insult (not only to Wlad but also to all boxing fans) that I seriously don't understand why he still has any fans left.

[Davros?]

David Haye should become a politician they always say the opposite of what they do and always duck questions.

[Dave Rado]

Haye's options were, for example ....
* fight a K-bro for $20mil, lose title and opportunity for future earnings
* fight Audley for $10mil, retain title, then unify before retiring for another $20mil+ vs a Klitschko.

Figures guess-timated, but you get my point.

There was simply no other intelligent choice to make, considering that a Klitschko fight will always be sitting there waiting, and Haye intends to retire within the next 12 months or so.

Your theory is based on the assumption that Haye knows he'll lose to either of the K bros.

Yet his money-making potential would be utterly destroyed if his fans realised that he knows that. His fights are only big sellers because his fans believe his hype, and think that he really believes he can beat the K bros.

So his whole strategy is based on cynically conning the public in order to make a few extra bucks, when he's already far richer than 99.999% of the population will ever be, and when he would have been far richer than he is now, before he retires, even if he had fought a Klitschko instead of fighting Audley.

To support that behaviour you have to be extremely cynical, which I am not, and which I don't think any boxing fan should be. Recognising that con men inhabit the sport and condoning it are two different things.

It is harming the sport, and no fan should condone it.

And much more annoying than Haye's behaviour is the behaviour of the media. None of the British journalists are calling him on the fact that he turned down as good an offer to fight Wlad as he's ever going to get and a better one than he had any right to expect, while continuing to pretend that it's Wlad who is ducking him rather than the other way around. Not one British journalist has pointed this out. Boxingscene journalists have been a bit better but not much. And The Ring has stayed quiet on the subject.

Haye's strategy depends on the cynical connivance of the media, because if they turned against him - even just to the extent of pointing out what he's doing and why he's doing it - his fights wouldn't sell. And he's getting their connivance, despite the fact that what he's doing is bad for boxing. And that stinks.

Haye will never have any problem affording anything he wants to buy, even if he retires tomorrow (unless he throws all his money away Floyd-style). So I refuse to accept that we should be sanguine about him harming the sport while cynically conning the public, in order to slightly increase his already massive retirement fund.

You'll be justifying the behaviour of the bankers next!

[Mersey]

He's been one of my favourite fighters for years, and I've completely lost respect for him.

After all the **** talking of the Klitschko brothers etc, then taking a fight with Audley Harrison and then planning to retire?

[Pirao]

I hope Haye is telling the truth for once, the sooner he retires, the better for boxing.

[jetgeomcx]

haye has been play-acting all the time....he's good at it.
he should face any of the klits and be done with it......
but he knows he doesn't stand a chance!!

[ChopperRead]

I hope Haye is telling the truth for once, the sooner he retires, the better for boxing.

I second that.