Why is Vitali so ashamed to announce retirement?

"He will be my 50th knockout!"

 

He should have retired by 30, like Haye did.

 

Lewis and his Camp attempted to get a different opponent when McCall was arrested for a second time in December of 1996 and sent to rehab for the second time. They and the network which was going to air the fight specifically questioned McCall's promoter Don King about his mental state and ability to actually make the fight. They were assured by King that McCall would be more than ready to fight Lewis and that his recent actions meant little where said ability to make the fight was concerned.

McCall should never have been in that fight in the first place, King should never have allowed him anywhere near that ring, but King was placing his hopes on McCall beating Lewis for a second time and didn't give a damn about McCall's personal problems. If anyone dragged McCall out of rehab and forced that rematch it was Don King.

Lewis only fought what was put in front of him and would have been perfectly happy to fight anyone. Sure, avenging an earlier defeat had some kind of special meaning to him, but it was tainted when McCall had his break down in the middle of the ring and you'd have to be crazy yourself if you think Lewis wouldn't have preferred to be a 100% physically and mentally fit McCall instead of the lunatic (as McCall's own trainer called him) he actually beat.

 

Yeah, that and all the pizza face talk really made him look bad considering he delivered neither. Right on par with Haye promising to make the robot malfunction and leave Wlad convulsing on the canvas.

 

David obviously is the better puncher than Vitali. Compare the Chisora fights. :yep

 

the Brits sure are desperate now that Price who they told us was the heir apparent was embarrassingly KOed by a slap from a fat unmotivated and uninterested 41 year old Tony Thompson.

Haye was offered the fight numerous times and took the easier way out every time. Nobody to blame but himself despite what the Glass Jawed Brits on here say.

 

Haye brings the money. :deal

 

I think part of the problem is guys like Povetkin, and Haye don't want to fight him.

Arreola and Stiverne were scheduled to meet for the #1 WBC spot, however the fight is off. Had Stiverene won, he's likely next for Vitali.

 

Vitali needs to get a move on. This is poor from the big man.

 

As a cruiserweight, England's Haye, 30, was a legitimate champion. At heavyweight, he has been nothing more than an overrated, loudmouthed paper titleholder whose bark turned out to be all he had -- because there was no bite. After spending most of the past three years calling out Wladimir Klitschko and his older brother, fellow titleholder Vitali, insulting them at every turn and disrespecting them time and again, Haye finally got in the ring after twice pulling out on them. He had bailed on a signed fight with Wladimir in 2009, citing an injury nobody believed, and then later in the year agreed to fight Vitali but signed to fight Nikolai Valuev for his belt instead. Finally, however, Haye showed up in the ring to fight Wladimir in a much-anticipated bout, mostly because of Haye's outrageous boasts about how he was going to brutally destroy Klitschko and send him to the hospital.

Instead, he was a toothless tiger, who did nothing to remotely back up his talk. Klitschko, with three inches and 30 pounds on him -- not to mention being better than Haye in every aspect of boxing, with the exception perhaps being speed -- took him apart. He jabbed, threw left hooks and right hands and moved forward throughout the fight. But Haye, who accused Klitschko of being boring, ran away the entire fight and turned in one of the most awful big-fight performances in history. Before the bout, HBO's Larry Merchant nailed it when said of Haye, "He's blown the trumpet. Now, will he charge?" The answer was a resounding no. Haye was the boring one because he refused to engage. He seemed utterly petrified of Klitschko's tremendous power. He was defensive and rarely let his hands go. Klitschko landed more than twice as many punches as Haye.

What Haye seemed to do more than punch was look for help from referee Geno Rodriguez and flop to the mat because of phantom pushes. After a few flops, Rodriguez bought the con job and docked a point from Klitschko for pushing Haye down in the seventh round. In the 11th round, with Haye already out of it on the scorecards, he flopped again. This time, Rodriguez was hip to Haye's act and ruled it a knockdown. It was one of the more inventive makeup calls from a referee you'll ever see.

Klitschko, 35, racked up round after round as he rolled to the lopsided decision, unifying three of the major belts and leaving no doubt that he is clearly the No. 1 heavyweight in the world. The only fighter even close is Vitali, and the brothers and best friends have, for obvious reasons, vowed never to fight each other. Complain about Klitschko's style all you want, but it's damn effective. There is nobody to even give him a challenge right now as he moved to 11-0 with 9 knockouts during this, his second title reign. He is 17-2 with 14 knockouts overall in world title bouts and hasn't been in a remotely competitive fight since his first fight with Samuel Peter in 2005.

Haye's excuse for his putrid performance was a sore pinky toe on his right foot that he supposedly suffered three weeks before the fight. The jokes to be made here are endless. But let's take Haye at his word and believe he really was injured. Still, to hear him blame his loss on a three-week-old pinky toe injury was laughable. Think about Arturo Gatti fighting through horrible cuts and busted hands. Think about Tomasz Adamek fighting a blood-soaked war with Paul Briggs despite having broken his nose a couple of weeks before the fight. The list of true warriors is endless. Haye simply got his ass whooped by a better, bigger, smarter, more talented fighter and had to have an alibi for his woeful performance. So he blamed it on the pinky toe, which he eagerly showed off after the fight. (Frankly, it only looked a little swollen.) The pinky toe excuse is destined to go down among the all-time worst excuses in sports. Haye put himself in this position. He was in a (toe?) jam here because, had he pulled out because of the injury, he would have been a laughingstock for ducking the Klitschkos for a third time. So he went through with the fight, got routed and then made up excuses that made him a laughingstock anyway. All the while, the classy Klitschko, a native of Ukraine who has fought mostly in Germany, added yet another notch on his surefire first-ballot Hall of Fame resume.

 

he also brings shame and embarrassment

you want to see him run and flop like a little girl again for 12 rounds? neither does anyone else who is a player putting up money. Haye is an exposed fraud at heavyweight and a clown

that is all :hi:

 

Retirement makes a lot of sense for Vitali right now.

He is old, is already tied up with other demanding activities, hasn't gotten a good fight for quite some time, his brother blocks the way a little, it's only logical to walk away.

Thing is, he really doesn't want to, that's why he keeps pushing that date ahead trying to put everything together and find enough space on his life to continue fighting.