Too many belts may have been the cause of Haye's bad back - Photo s73v3n CCA
The most appetising heavyweight fight of recent times looks like it is on the ropes in the wake of challenger David Haye sustaining a back injury, and the Wladimir Klitschko was none too impressed by the withdrawal:
The heavyweight kingpin said: “Haye was the one challenging me, now he’s backing out.
“I will proceed with another fight on June 20.
“I waited six months for Haye because they promised to deliver Chelsea football ground as a venue.
“That fell through, and now this.
“I must just get on with my career although, if this fight can be rescheduled, I would still agree because now I have even more motivation to beat him.
“Never before have I had a big title fight called off with barely two weeks to go.”
Of course there are several strands to that argument which could be debated, but the most interesting one is that Klitschko has never had a big title fight called off with barely two weeks to go.
So where to from here? Haye’s injury appears to be a genuine back problem, and he’d be ready three weeks later on July 11 for the fight. Not ideal for the thousands of ticket-holders on June 20 - so Klitschko appaears to want to give those fans a show on that day. It’s not always easy to find an opponent for such an important clash on such short notice, however, so who do the Klitschko camp have in mind? The BBC report:
“Haye is still a possibility but our first priority is Chagaev,” said Klitschko’s coach Bernd Boente.
Ruslan Chagaev - now where have we heard that name before? Is it from his outstanding record as a heavyweight of 25 wins and 1 draw from 26 fights? Possibly, but maybe not… Is it from his brilliant, quasi-racist nickname ‘The White Tyson’? No, though it’s still worth mentioning… Oh, that’s it, we know the name because we read an article about him a week ago on the BBC:
Nikolay Valuev’s defence of his WBA heavyweight crown has been called off after opponent Ruslan Chagaev failed a medical on the eve of the fight.
Ho-hum. So if he’s been pulled out of a fight the night before it was due to take place then - well, he must be super-ready to fight Klitschko, of course. And there’s no doubting his ability to contest a fight on June 20; after all, it isn’t as if this has happened before… Oh wait:
Finnish law dictates details of the failed test cannot be revealed, but a statement said Chagaev was unable to “fulfil the federation’s requirements”.
A statement from Valuev’s promoters said: “Our top priority is Nikolai’s health and it could not be guaranteed.”
In 2007, Chagaev pulled out of a unification bout against then-WBO champion Sultan Ibragimov. It was widely reported at the time that he had contracted hepatitis B.
On balance, we’d probably rather give the boxer with the bad back an extra three weeks to get ready.
