Big news in the world of boxing, with the sport’s second biggest matchup after a P4P clash between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao finally being made as Wladimir Klitschko will face David Haye in a blockbuster heavyweight title unification match this summer. Haye told the BBC that he has a deal in front of him that he’s happy with while both Haye’s manager Adam Booth and Klitschko’s manager Bernard Boente have said that the fight will take place on either the 25th June or the 2nd July. Booth told Sky Sports News that the deal is ‘signed’.
The two camps last discussed making the fight at the turn of the year but that fell apart due to Haye not wanting to fight on April 30th and Klitschko responding by rescheduling his fight with British champion Derek Chisora, a defense orginally planned for December 4th that Klitschko had to cancel due to a abdominal muscle tear. Conincidentally Klitschko has once again cancelled this defense citing a failure to heal quickly enough from that injury.
What brought both camps back to the table is unclear although it was clear that Haye would struggle to put together a marketable defense of his WBA Title with mandatory challenger Ruslan Chagaev unlikely to be sanctioned by the British Boxing Board of Control due to his hepatitis while the reputation of Chagaev’s likely replacement Alexander Povetkin was severely damaged by his open duck of Wladimir Klitschko last September. The Klitschkos on the other hand had secured marquee matches against unbeaten Olympian Olandier Solis and popular two-weight world champion Tomasz Adamek.
However neither fight will compare with the interest that will be generated when the two year grudge between the two champions is finally settled in the ring.
