Wladimir Klitschko (bottom) of Ukraine and his coach Emanuel Steward look glum during a press conference as they discover the fight with heavyweight rival David Haye of Great Britain is off. Haye apparently suffered an undisclosed hand injury in training and wants six to eight weeks to recover. Klitschko will now consider a replacement opponent on the June 20 date which had generated a sold out crowd of 60,000+ at the Veltins-Arena in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.
“I am very disappointed that the fight got cancelled. I’ve been in training camp for weeks. I am in top condition and I was really looking forward to fight night. I don’t want to disappoint the fans in Schalke and I am willing to fight a different opponent as well,” said Klitschko. Bernd Bönte, Managing Director of the Klitschko Management Group confirmed “We will do everything to realize this fight night. After having recovered from the first shock, we will work on finding a top opponent.” More to come…
Photo by Alexander Hassenstein/Bongarts/Getty Images
Pavlik to re-ink with Top Rank!
WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik has agreed to a multiyear contract extension with Top Rank. According to Pavlik’s hometown newspaper the Youngstown Vindicator, many details haven’t been ironed out, but the new pact will extend at least until 2011. Promoter Bob Arum is planning to try to reschedule a bout between Pavlik and former champ Sergio Mora for September, and a showdown with IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham or WBA middleweight champion Felix Sturm could be in the cards for December or January.
If Haye is truly hurt, that is a shame and I hope he recovers soon.
On the other hand, this might be a big break for boxing fans and a bad situation for Klitschko and Stewart.
This might FORCE them to look for a true heavyweight, instead of looking to fight a cruiserweight like Haye who they would out weigh by about 50 pounds as well as tower over.
This is no knock on Haye, but he is a cruiserweight, not a heavyweight and Klitschko is sized as a super-heavyweight.
To me this fight looks like a setup for trying to get Klitschko to look like a heavyweight who knocks out other fighters again, as he did Pre-Stewart. Not look like “robo-fighter”, lacking aggression and fighting to avoid allowing his opponent to get within punching distance of his vulnerable chin.
Is Chris Arreola a possibility to replace Haye ? There would have to be other viable true heavyweights out there.
While Arreola certainly wouldn’t be intimidated by Klitschko, who doesn’t have much of a chin, but I am concerned about his fitness.
For the life of me, I cannot understand the amount of heavyweights who come in with many pounds of excess blubber on them, when getting in shape is worth millions of dollars for them.
Adding fat reduces punching power and the added weight just means that they are fighting while a backpack full of sand is on them.
I find it really embarrassing and a slight to boxing.
Holy Shit, this guy talks and talks and now pulls out. Hey, if you are injured what can you do but it shows you not to do too much yipping because you KNOW Klit is going to call him out on bitching out of the fight. Perro fought and he wasn’t 100%.
Comments are closed.