Dan Rafael: Ducker David Haye is a joke at this point.

Yeah man, seeing the same...

 

Sure, David Haye is going to hit someone. I can't think of a less intimidating heavyweight to meet in a dark alley than Haye. Honestly, he makes Wlad look like Hannibal Lecter. Nothing, and I mean nothing about him is frightening outside of the ring. Also, he's a businessman first and a fighter second, which means he'd have to get the consent of a team of high-priced lawyers before he ever hit anyone.

 

Haye's fight with Valuev did 750-900,000 and Haye must have drawn 90% of those alone. Assuming that's the case, then the Wlad fight would have to do about 1.6m PPV buys in Britain, for Wlad to bring 50% of the fans. Do you think that's a realistic target?

Haye will make massive money against Harrison. He'll sell out a stadium and Harrison is more famous over here. There would be more interest from the general public in that fight.

Why wouldn't Wlad accept the current deal with the purse split 50/50, him keeping all the German TV money, if he was as desperate to fight Haye as he says?

 

Wlad brings the interest.
No one wants to see Haye do anything but try to survive some steel hammers.

 

Haye vs. Harrison would do more, sadly. More fans recognize his name than Klitschko's. It's sad but true. An Adamek fight would also sell more PPV's over here. There are millions of Polish people in Britain and it would sell more based on that.

The thing is, Klitschko has no identity over here. He's the champion in an era when being the heavyweight champion carries no weight. Nobody really cares that Wlad/Haye would be a unification bout. The people who know about the belts are tired of them and those who don't, see Haye as a world champion and that's all that matters. They see him as THE heavyweight champion, albeit incorrectly.

I don't think Wlad brings much more interest, to be honest.

 

Over here he doesn't. He may get an inch in the papers every 3 months. To us, he's another faceless heavyweight with an Eatern European name. Nobody cares.

 

What?

 

Where's the proof? Most of what I've heard about Haye's massive earning potential has been hyperbole or outright lies. For weeks I have heard from Haye supporters who claimed he sold 800,000 pay per views vs. Valuev. That would make it the biggest heavyweight fight in UK history. I've done the research and have found absolutely nothing to substantiate this claim.

Do you know what I found? Links to boxing forums like this one. That's the proof? And that, my friend, is where the rumor began. No reputable news organization that I found reported that Haye vs. Valuev sold 800,000.

Yet another lie from that fight was the one you repeated earlier, that Haye got a better deal from Valuev. Well, according to the Guardian, Haye earned 1 million pounds to fight Valuev. (I can provide the link!) That's less than what he was offered to fight either Klitschko. :yep

 

This should be a big american fight anyway.
HBO is ******ed.

 

edit

 

Nah, mate, the deal fell apart because Wlad wanted to split the TV money 50/50. Haye didn't.