Funny how Haye talks publicly about the 'slave contracts' he was offered stating he had to rematch the brother he beat [when rematch clauses are part and parcel of a lot of title fights] and that he had to fight the other brother should he win [which he said he wanted to do anyway, so what's the problem? The clause is just a way of making sure he doesn't go back on his word], and then goes and signs a contract to fight Valuev whereby Sauerland take 30% of his purse for the next 3 fights.
Bull**** Who has Wlad beaten that he will be remembered for? Haye would be by far the best fighter Wlad has beaten, its the fight everyone wants to see for a reason :deal
maybe haye wants a tune up in between? thats a don king slave contract if i ever saw one, beat me fight me again and then fight my big brother/lover.
Bollocks ! Who in 20 years time is gonna sit down and talk about Wlad and remember his fight with x,w,z( heck i dont even know some of them) he aint had any defining fights FACT! He needs Haye for legacy FACT!
Chagaev, Ibragimov, Peter, Chambers, Byrd all had better records than Haye. The only reason Wlad wants Hays is that delusional brits are willing to pay top dollar for this fight.
Nobody is saying that haye has got a better record than haye(well i aint) If peter and chambers is his best win then god help his atg status.
You are over-rating Haye. It's arguable whether he's even a better heavyweight than Chris Byrd at this point, he's done nothing to prove it. Wlad will be remembered because he's forged a good legacy for himself, with a great period of dominance for a number of years having beaten all the top names [Ibragimov/Chageav/Chambers/Peter/Thompson] around during that time. Haye won't be remembered at heavyweight at all without a win over either Klitschko. He'll go down as a decent belt-holder with a weak resumé when stacked up against other champs and that's it. Wlad with or without this fight will go down as a top 20 heavyweight of all-time when all is said and down. A win over a belt-holder in Haye who never established himself in ATG terms as a top heavyweight isn't going to push him up much further. Off the top of my head, I could probably think of 35 names that would rate above Haye at HW all-time without much trouble.
I disagree. Should Wlad beat Haye then Haye will automatically be labelled as another average, overrated challenger with a big mouth who talks a lot but was unable to follow up in the ring fighting at world-level opposition at HW. In fact, if Haye is beaten by Wlad and then retires on the spot nobody in history will remember Haye. In that case the significance of beating Haye is about as high or low as beating Ibragimov for Wlad. The only way for Haye to become a significant potential win for Wlad would be for a) Wlad to beat Haye and b) Haye to come back from the loss and rack up a number of significant wins at HW afterwards. That would give Wlad's win some weight and credibility. Unfortunately Haye has said numerous times that he wants to retire pretty soon and if he keeps his word then there is no way for Wlad to gain much additional historic prestige beyond holding another paper belt.
ATG status is about dominating their respective era of boxing. Wlad obviously is not done yet, but if he continues to dominate I say his ATG status is secured.
and what makes Haye special? Beating washed up Barrett, Ruiz, Harrison? Adamek is more legitimate contender in my mind.
Of course you will get the odd idiot saying that as they will do whatever they can to discredit Wlad no matter what, but Haye is a genuine world class fighter, no hater can deny that fact, he's a 2 weight World Champion, he's an athletic hard hitting fighter, in top shape, in his prime who has the charisma to make the fight and build up that much more special. Nobody that Wlad has faced has been as talented as Haye and if Wlad beats him then he gets all the credit in the world from me. For people to say that fighters like Peter, Chambers, Ibragimov would be better wins, well quite honestly they are talking out of there ass.