Making Of The Hayemaker: Good For Boxing?

(Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

Two respected men in the boxing cycle, two different opinions. Sir 'enry Cooper rates him as good fighter and potentially the biggest threat to the Klitchsko heavyweight dominance at the moment but clearly he shows no support towards the Hayemaker's press conference and 'tasteless' tactics, especially the t-shirt he wore depicting both of the Klitchkos brothers heads severed from their lifeless torsos being held aloft in each hand belonging to David Haye. However Manny Steward, Wladimir Klitchkos trainer, calls him a genius.

In my short lifespan , apart from maybe Ricardo Mayorga and Iron Mike, I have yet to see someone match Haye in terms of trash talk and pre fight entertainment and I for one have been swayed towards the London fighter and will no doubt want to know how he will fare come fight night. You may discredit the way in which these fighters deride their opponents and their attempts to get under their skin but Haye is different and he doesn’t go beyond family, religion etc except when talking about Vitali, the way in which Haye talks is quite captivating as he is quite brutal in terms of his assessment of Wlad and he seems to have an answer for everything thus garnering mass media attention.

When Haye was asked what he thought of Wlad his answer was a flat straight down the middle 'He's crap.He stands for everything I hate in boxing at the moment, he's a B-level fighter'. Haye might have been wrong on some counts as becoming heavyweight champion of the world is no easy feat and you can only beat what is put in front of you but everything else he was saying was more or less true for example most heavyweight opponents Wlad has faced are over the hill fatties who 'come to collect a pay cheque and say nothing then lose'.

Then there's the t-shirt, is it a step too far? Wlad seemed very angry and asked what was next for Haye to curse and that he was a poor example to kids, but everyone seemed to forget that David Haye was not about disrespecting opponents nor was it about criticising the calibre of their past opponents. David Haye is all about bringing recognition and money back to the heavyweight division and if Haye can sell out a 50,000 outdoor soccer stadium in Germany then Im guessing David Haye's future opponents will be lining up to be spanked an bad mouthed, only in a literal sense!!

And as for being a bad role model to kids, I guess there are other ways of making your point but one thing you can learn from Haye is that persistence is key to getting what you want, Haye has had one heavyweight fight and he's got a title shot, somehow I don't think his resume against heavyweight opposition got him that shot. Verdict: Genius

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