By Ray Ender
David Haye lost to Wladimir Klitschko by unanimous decision in Hamburg, Germany, in front of a soaked wet audience. I feel for those in attendance, they paid to watch an action packed heavyweight fight, but instead they had to endure torture. Not only did it rain and they got drenched, they had to also sit through one of the most boring fights of the year.
The build up for this fight was more entertaining than the actual fight itself. The only big fights that I can remember that actually lived up to the hype were the Muhammad Ali vs. Joe Frazier, the Sugar Ray Leonard vs. Tommy Hearns, and the Marvin Hagler vs. Tommy Hearns fights — all of these lived up to the hype.
It just seems that in most cases, whenever they build up or hype a fight up to be an action fight, it winds up being a dud. The World Awaits fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Oscar De La Hoya has the record for the most pay-per-view buys in boxing with 2.4 million buys, and it was the first fight to use HBO 24/7 as a build up series — that fight was a more like a sparring session.
It takes two to tango, and, although Wladimir Klitschko’s style is boring because he has become more of a jabber than fighter, its all Haye’s fault for not delivering on his end. David Haye put on a Shane Mosley against Manny Pacquiao type of performance, well, not as bad as Shane Mosley when he fought Pacquiao, but it was just as disappointing because both guys talked about going for the knockout and fought cautious in the ring.
Funny thing is that David Haye used a similar excuse like Mosley did for his poor performance against Pacquiao, Haye said his right foot and his toe were hurting weeks before the fight and that was what caused his poor performance.
Haye even took off his shoe in the ring just to show reporters that his toe was swollen and injected with some type of medicine to help reduce inflammation. If Haye was trying to make himself look like a warrior having fought with a broken toe and sore foot, he failed to do so. He did anything but fight, he went over to enemy territory and knew he wouldn’t win a decision, but fought like a guy who wasn’t going to take any chances or had anything to prove. Haye conned us all with his hype.
Gone are the days of the exciting heavyweight fighters, no wonder the little guys are carrying the sport of boxing, because at least they come to fight and you are now more likely to get a knockout or exciting fight from them. Only watch the heavyweights if you want to take care of your insomnia.
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