Dan Rafael Shocking Lack of Professionalism

Blood Green · Jul 3, 2011

He can't score a fight and doesn't sound like he's ever boxed.

Unforgiven · Jul 3, 2011

This is Dan Rafael's article.

It's actually spot on. What exactly has he said wrong here ?

Like the other nine guys who Wladimir Klitschko has defended the heavyweight title against, David Haye promised he would end the champion's reign.

In fact, the mouthy Haye talked and jabbered and howled and smack-talked for much of the past three years, promising to do all sorts of naughty things to Klitschko.

Promised to leave him twitching on the ring mat, the victim of a crushing knockout. Promised the most brutal execution ever.
Promised a lot of things.
Delivered nothing.

All that Haye -- one of the biggest heavyweight frauds of all time -- did was bark. Like a dog. Because he sure didn't fight much, as Klitschko -- as dominant as ever at age 35 -- picked him apart for the lopsided decision on Saturday in rainy Hamburg, Germany.
It was not a scintillating fight. Far from it. But Klitschko did what he usually does: outbox, outjab, outmuscle and outthink his opponent en route to total domination.
The only thing Klitschko didn't do was score the knockout -- only the second time in this, his second reign, that the opponent has heard the final bell.
Haye made it to the bell because he took none of the chances he promised he would. Instead, he fought scared.
As Klitschko said afterward, "I wish I could have knocked him out impressively. He was scared to fight me. I was expecting more of a challenge in the ring, more aggression. He was super-defensive, like all of them."
After all of the garbage and trash Haye talked, he never came close to backing it up. He said repeatedly that he would retire after the fight. It looked more to me like he retired during the first round, because he didn't really fight.
After the fight, I was thinking about what excuse Haye would come up with. I figured he'd say he had a hand injury. I was close: He claimed to have a broken toe on his right foot that didn't allow him to push off and land his so-called "Hayemaker" right hand.
Excuses, excuses, excuses.
Every fighter has injuries. Few come to the ring without bumps and bruises from a tough training camp. I'm sure Klitschko was also dinged up.

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But given the way Haye has always handled himself, I am not surprised at all that he had an alibi at the ready, so much so that he came to his interview in the ring after the fight with HBO's legendary Larry Merchant with his sock already off so that the camera could get a good look at his allegedly injured digit.
It looked OK to me, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and say it was injured. If so, take the loss like a man and shut up about it.
There is no Toe-gate here. Haye was simply outclassed by a supreme champion who still has not been challenged to any serious degree since 2005.
Against Haye, Klitschko won 118-108, 117-109 and 116-110. I also had it 118-108. And Haye, who continually flopped to the ground -- I lost track of how many times, frankly -- to buy a point deduction from referee Geno Rodriguez, complaining that Klitschko shoved him to the mat, finally got one in the seventh round. It was a bogus deduction, but Rodriguez fell for it.
But even Rodriguez realized he was being conned, so when Haye flopped again in the 11th round, the ref ruled it a knockdown. It's not like Klitschko needed the extra point. He was cruising.
He landed 134 of 509 punches (26 percent), according to CompuBox. Haye's output was downright pathetic: just 72 of an anemic 290 blows (26 percent).
You can't win if you don't throw. And Haye didn't throw.
I find that funny because, all along, Haye has called Klitschko a boring fighter. And yet on this night, the biggest of his career, Haye was the one who disgraced himself by making it boring, by running away, by not engaging, by not doing much of anything.
Well, except for making excuses about a hurt toe.
So it was Klitschko with another dominant win, a 10th title defense (one more than the prime Mike Tyson during his first run) and now a fourth sanctioning body title in the family. Klitschko and brother Vitali now own all four major belts.
Three for Wladimir and one for Vitali, with no serious challengers on the horizon. (I say that with all due respect to Tomasz Adamek, who I don't give much of a chance against Vitali on Sept. 17. But I know he will at least leave it all in the ring unlike Haye.)
Folks can say whatever they want about the Klitschko brothers, but they win and win and win. They dominate.
Some people want them out of boxing because they aren't the most exciting fighters. Fine. Go find somebody to beat them.
Lord knows, Haye sure talked like he would. Talked and talked and talked.
But his talk turned out not only to be cheap. It was worthless.

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Relentless · Jul 3, 2011

lzolnier said: ↑

Raphael saw Haye for what he was from day 1 of this Wlad saga and yesterday was his day to say to many I told you so. Give him a break.
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he did a ****in countdown on twitter for when haye will pull out atsch

he also wished briggs died in the ring again vitklit.

Samski313 · Jul 3, 2011

Relentless said: ↑

he did a ****in countdown on twitter for when haye will pull out atsch

he also wished briggs died in the ring again vitklit.
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I dont want to hear you say **** else negative about Mayweather considering your HERO is Haye!!!! smh at that bull**** i watched yesterday!!!

Zhaakal · Jul 3, 2011

Blood Green said: ↑

He can't score a fight and doesn't sound like he's ever boxed.
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Lol.. He doesn't look like he even knows what the word exercise means.

I would be much less critical if the journalist was some former amateur boxer with considerable experience or something like that but it's just mind blowing to read some fat **** write **** about athletes when he isn't too bust jerking off behind his PC.

Alcaldemb · Jul 3, 2011

Uncle Oden said: ↑

He does seem to forget that he's a journalist, not a blogger.
It's highly annoying. No more annoying than the venom that the HBO crew was spewing, though.
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The thing is Dan doesn't bother me. Haye talked a big game and then ran. Dan's vitriol is what many non-Haye apologists feel today. It is the opposite of the biased commentary by HBO, or the total lack of balance and professionialism displayed by the British media.

BrianMcB · Jul 3, 2011

thehavenots said: ↑

Yeah fat dan is annoying but his classless comments are nothing to the ones briggs and gaye diva spew out about the klitschko's
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Atleast they got up there with a pair of elite heavyweights and took punishment.

He is just a fat bloke behind a keyboard who doesnt either have to a) sell a fight or b) face the consequences.

JETSKI · Jul 3, 2011

private_eye44 said: ↑

Whilst Haye most definitely looked a fool for losing a near shut out in a dull fight, especially with his crass behaviour pre-fight, I cannot get over the sheer lack of professionalism that Rafael is showing on the ESPN boxing site as well his twitter. It looks terrible and i think frankly he should be ashamed with his 'oneupmanship' and lack of journalistic integrity. At the end of the Haye stepped into the ring and took
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and has to face up to it himself and I find it disgusting that scribe of a sport such as boxing could act in this manner.

P.S. I am not a David Haye fan and applauded Wlad for how he carried himself through the entire 2 years of build up and expected him to win.
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Excuse me...I failed to see even ONE ROUND of "punishment" delievered like Wladdy promised.

Like I said in the "Joke" thread about Haye, actually BOTH fighters were HORRIBLE and a digrace to the sport of boxing. Period.

Russkie · Jul 3, 2011

Don't know what he said about Briggs (who deserves respect), but I just read what he said about Haye and it's fully legit IMHO. Haye just deserves a lot of criticism. I'm sorry but he guy was a fraud, as many of us suspected - like Kevin Johnson but with a bigger mouth.

mckay_89 · Jul 3, 2011

Yeah I don't think what he said about Haye was that bad really, but like I said earlier on, the stuff about wishing Briggs had been killed against Vitali was ****ing disgraceful for anyone to say, never mind a boxing journalist. I hope Dan crosses Briggs' path one day and is made to pay for what he said.

geppy · Jul 3, 2011

David lacks professionalism, he is a disgrace. Any **** Haye gets now, after talking for 3 years and then doing nothing inside the ring, he deserves all of it.

How can someone defend that scumbag, whinny sore toed loser?

KillSomething · Jul 3, 2011

Rafael wouldn't suck so much if he actually knew a damn thing about boxing. Like, boxing in the ring. He's great for the workings of the sport outside the ring, but he's clueless about the actual action.

And he's a fat ****er.

lzolnier · Jul 3, 2011

Unforgiven said: ↑

This is Dan Rafael's article.

It's actually spot on. What exactly has he said wrong here ?
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Dan`s article is how most people feel about Haye and his con job on Saturday. He`s not the most eloquent writer, but his appraisal of fighters and what they do in the ring is usually accurate.

Chilli · Jul 3, 2011

Now it's personal matter:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9NLmnAZOUE&t=1m57s
(start 1m57)

kmac · Jul 3, 2011

rafael isn't much of a pro but neither is any of the writers that cover the sport. none of them really have any respect for the fighters. fighters go in the ring and risk their life then get criticized by the media. when you think about it, a boxing writer should be one of the least respected jobs. with that said, haye deserves all the crap he's getting. what a joke.

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Dan Rafael Shocking Lack of Professionalism

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