With Wladimir Klitschko effectively walking away from a July 2011 fight date with David Haye, the finger-pointing has begun in earnest. Haye in particular has loudly proclaimed his disgust, declaring he is “done” with the Klitschko brothers. According to Haye, he doesn’t need either of the big Ukrainians to secure his legacy. The Hayemaker says his retirement later this year is on track and that it is Wladimir’s reputation that will suffer for scrapping their fight.
Of course, claims and recriminations of this type are the norm in the event of any big fight falling through: just witness Floyd Mayweather running from Manny Pacquiao while pretending to be the new poster boy for steroid testing. However, David Haye is not the heavyweight equivalent of Manny Pacquiao, so the question of just who will suffer from this shambles is very much open to debate.
Financially, both fighters suffer. True, Wladimir, Vitali and Haye will all make decent money fighting other guys on their respective home turfs, but Klitschko vs. Haye is the biggest potential pay-day in the heavyweight division. Whatever happens in 2011, no one concerned will make as much money as they could have with this fight.
In terms of reputation and legacy, however, David Haye is wrong when he says that it is Wladimir Klitschko that will suffer. While Dr. Steelhammer ducked Haye this month, Haye ducked both Vitali and Wladimir last year en route to his fight with Nikolai Vaulev. While Wladimir has some humiliating losses on his record, those were several years ago. He hasn’t cleaned out the division, but Dr. Steelhammer has fought most of the men worth fighting at heavyweight and earned his position as the IBF-WBO champion and top dog. By contrast, David Haye is a johnny-come-lately who hasn’t come even close to establishing the same track record.
Of course, taking on Ruslan Chagaev is a good start, but Wladimir Klitschko has already whomped him. Were Haye to stick around for another three to five years and run up an impressive streak of wins over heavyweight contenders, he would create a track record rivaling Klitschko’s. As Haye became more of a proven fixture, the singular fact that Wladimir ducked him would grow. Then, and only then, would Klitschko’s reputation suffer. Otherwise, Klitschko is still 1-1 in terms of who ducked who, and his existing reputation overshadows that. This is largely speculation on my part, but it is based on what fight fans are saying now and past examples of how things like this work out in the long run.
So David Haye is wrong when he says Wladimir Klitschko will suffer, because the waters are too muddy to establish such a clear-cut case. The only thing that would clear away the doubts is Haye hanging around beyond October 2011. However, the question of whose reputation suffers — Haye’s or Klitschko’s — misses the larger point. The people who suffer the most from Wladimir Klitschko vs. David Haye collapsing are not the fighters, but the fans who were so eagerly looking forward to an exciting heavyweight clash.
