Raff, with respect, maybe you keep hearing the same xxxx over and over again because its a valid point of view in a lot of people's eyes ?
You've got issues with Haye, so you skew your arguments accordingly, which is fair enough, but there's a lot of people fed up with the Klitschko's, and excited that there is a new kid on the block. HBO's decision is not surprising, competition for TV coverage is tough and you've two guys who, because they are brothers, will never fight each other. Plus, one of them is really boring, and the other is approaching his 40th birthday. Can't fault HBO for their decision.
You're asking me to explain to you why I find Haye a breath of fresh air, and you lace your argument with observations about how other boxers have dealt with Haye opponents quicker or more effectively than Haye has.
I can't be arsed. Its anorak stuff to be honest. I just find Haye to be a fresh new addition to the scene, and I like watching him fight. Wlad K, these days, is indulging in borderline cheating as far as I'm concerned and he's so boring even Manny Steward kicked off about it in the latter part of the fight against Chambers. At the risk of exposing myself as an anorak, I just googled "Wladimir Klitschko cheats" and found this article,
http://queensberry-rules.com/2010-artic ... mbers.html
That sums it up for me, especially the bit that says,
(Also, Klitschko cheats like a mofo by leaving his left arm out that way, but he gets away with it because he doesn't leave it out there for long enough stretches to draw a warning from the ref; oh, and it's a German ref, and Germany loves Klitschko.)
If you want to applaud that kind of thing, fair enough, but lots of folk are fed up and it seems to me that the Klitschko's have basically reduced the heavyweight championship, which should be a global thing, to something that is mainly of interest in Germany. British telly isn't particularly interested and the American's have just given up. Its boring as hell and I think Haye should do his own thing. He's won a major title, he's the new kid on the block, and good luck to him. As for the whole "they've offered him a 50/50 deal and he turned it down" I don't think that armchair fans, on forums like this, are privvy to what is REALLY going on behind the scenes. We live in a soundbite, press-release, media-manipulated world where statements like this are easily fed to the public. When Haye didn't have a title, he was apparently having to agree to face the Klitschko's again and again (three bouts in total) should he have won against Wlad. No, I didn't see the contracts but it was openly discussed by both parties. Although the world would probably pay good money to see Haye, after beating Wlad, take on Vitali, and then Wlad in a rematch, I don't think its a particularly fair way of going about things, to get this into a contract before the first fight takes place. The idea behind it is to suit the Klitschko's own agenda, not Haye and not the sport. Then again, boxing isn't fair and never has been.
To me, that was pretty low. Wlad would have trained long and hard for the fight, basing his style around minimum risk, with what I regard as borderline cheating, and he'd have known that should he lose, then his older brother gets the next crack at Haye, and then there's a rematch clause, to boot.
Things like that make me long to see the Klitschko's retire and new blood come along to inject some life and excitement into the division.
