David Haye Thinks Vitali Will Retire
By Neil James: David Haye is concerned that Vitali Klitschko would rather retire than fight him; the Londoner has been chasing the WBC champion for months in hope of securing a fight. That is only fight that Haye is interested in and has already stated that should Vitali retire, then he will also hang up his gloves.
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Haye would love nothing more than see the fight signed and sealed, but considering the Vitali camp has gone quiet, it is looking more likely that fight will not happen.
Before, Vitali and his management team insisted that David Haye should fight Dereck Chisora and the winner would face the Ukrainian.
Haye convincingly beat Chisora, in better fashion that Vitali did.
“We spent a lot of time working on the contract when he fought Manuel Charr in terms of finance,” said Haye.
“That side of things is agreed so it’s just for him to agree a date and a venue – if he wants to do it.
“They said fight Derek Chisora, so of course I fought him and beat him – in a much better fashion than Vitali did – but I haven’t heard from him for months.
“So I can kind of assume that he’s retiring and is just waiting to officially announce his retirement.”
Haye understands that Vitali involvement in politics in his native Ukraine is taking up a lot of his time, the older Vitali gets the more time he is spending in politics. However, Haye is optimistic that once all that settles down the fight everyone wants to see will come to light.
The Londoner is prepared to wait for Vitali, but he knows that the longer it takes the harder it is going to be to make it happen.
“The way I see it is the longer Vitali leaves it, the worse it is for him,” he said.
“I’m 32, he’s 41, so I could leave it five years and still be 37, but he’d be pushing on 50! It’s up to him.
“The way I see it is if it doesn’t happen by the summer, I’d be very surprised if it ever does.”
Haye has only fought once since his loss to Vitali’s brother Wladimir in July 2011 when he knocked out Dereck Chisora, but the former WBA champion has also insisted that he is not interested in another warm-up fight.
“If you look at my recent record, I’ve boxed once a year and that it suits me down to the ground,” he said.
“People use the phrase ring-rust but that is only brought out when they put in a bad performance. I’ve not looked ring rusty in my last fight and that was a year after I lost to Klitschko.
“I thought I was razor-sharp to be honest and I thought I was firing on all cylinders. It was the best of me in terms of heavyweight performances.
“I won’t need a warm-up fight. I don’t believe in them. I’ve had enough amateur fights and professional fights to know how to peak and train and how to get my body optimised. And I’ll do that.”
Sam James
@worldinsport
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