Wladimir Klitschko vs. David Haye, billed as The Talk Ends Now, was a heavyweight unification fight between IBF, WBO, IBO, and The Ring champion Wladimir Klitschko, and WBA champion David Haye. The fight took place in Imtech Arena, Altona, Hamburg, Germany on July 2, 2011.

In 2008 after becoming unified cruiserweight champion, David Haye moved up to heavyweight. Klitschko welcomed the challenge of Haye. Talks started immediately between Klitschko and Haye but came to nothing, even after Haye publicly confronted and challenged Klitschko at an event at the ExCeL London in April 2008. Haye reiterated a challenge to Klitschko to fight him in 2009. In his second fight, he wanted to fight JD Chapman who he claimed was a similar style to the Klitschkos.

Haye also added that the heavyweight division was scared of him. In July 2008 Wladimir Klitschko said that Haye was a possible opponent for him to fight next. Haye started to call out the Klitschkos after he knocked out Monte Barret in the 5th round in 2008.

In late 2008 Haye and Vitali verbally agreed to terms to fight in the summer. However Klitschko fought mandatory challenger, Juan Carlos Gomez. Haye then turned his sights to Wladimir.

In 2009 after protracted talks, Wladimir agreed to fight Haye on 20 June in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. In the build-up to that fight Klitschko labeled Haye an ’embarrassment’ after Haye appeared wearing a T-shirt with the Klitschkos’ severed heads.] He also vowed to knock Haye out in the 12th round. Haye pulled out of the fight with a back injury, and hoped to postpone the fight until July 11. This did not happen and Haye was replaced by Ruslan Chagaev who Klitschko stopped in 9th round.

Since then both Vitali and Wladimir had wanted to fight Haye, with Vitali wanting to have a fight with Haye in 2010 which never happened. Instead, Haye won the WBA title after defeating Nikolay Valuev.

On 16 April 2009, Haye wore a T-shirt depicting him holding the heads of the Klitschko brothers while standing atop their decapitated bodies. At the same time, he declared a war on both the Klitschko brothers, hoping to first defeat Wladimir, then Vitali. Two press conferences were held in announcement of the fight. The first one took place in Hamburg, the second in London. There was also an HBO Face Off held in New York City. At the HBO Face Off, Haye said that you could feel the tension and “almost cut it with a knife”. He also thought that Klitschko would punch him during the interview. Yet again Haye refused to shake Klitschko’s hand.

A pre-fight news conference was held on June 27 in Hamburg. No new things were said. Haye got up and said that Klitschko was like a robot, and would malfunction on fight night. He said he was happy the fight was happening, because he was just a much better fighter. He also said that he would show a totally new game plan and would not fight like he had done in his other fights. Haye proclaimed that you could play his new iPhone game David Haye’s knockout, where you could see what would happen on July 2.

Haye’s trainer Adam Booth got up to the microphone and only said: “Enjoy”, and gave the word to Klitschko’s trainer Emanuel Steward. Steward said it was a big fight and he was very happy. He said that he would rate it as the 2nd biggest, only behind Lennox Lewis vs. Mike Tyson. Klitschko said that he did not like Haye’s attitude and that he would give him a lesson. He said he respected him as a fighter but not as a person. He promised to knock Haye out and that it would be good for Haye as a person.Vitali Klitschko wanted Haye to promise to be at the post press conference in front of everybody. Haye promised and said that Vitali should promise the same and not go with Wladimir to the ambulance after Haye had knocked him out. There was a scuffle and some punches between the two teams at the staredown, where Klitschko’s manager Bernard Bönte wanted to end the staredown early (the previous occasion, it had lasted almost three minutes).

The weigh in took place on 1 July 2011 at Karstadt Sporthaus, Hamburg. Wladimir Klitschko weighed in at 243 lbs (110 kg). David Haye weighed in at 213 lbs (96 kg)

When being asked about the outcome, Mike Tyson believed Haye had “no chance” of beating Klitschko, while Lennox Lewis was more supportive of Haye, believing that he “has the speed, agility, endurance and strength to do it”.

🥊SUCKERPUNCH BOXING🥊
————————————————————
PLEASE LIKE 👍🏻 & SUBSCRIBE ✅
————————————————————
#BOXING #FIGHTS #DOCUMENTARY #FULLFIGHTS #CLASSICFIGHTS #UKBOXING

source