Booth insists on 50-50 deal for Haye-Klitschko fight: Is Haye worth it?

By Scott Gilfoid: With only four fights under his belt as a heavyweight, including only one defensive of his World Boxing Association heavyweight title, David Haye and his trainer/manager Adam Booth want a 50-50 split of the revenue for a fight with IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko. Booth says in an article at the Sun, “The Klitschkos have to get it inside their heads that the only spilt will be 50-50. If they [Wladimir Klitschko] think it will be anything else they are deluding themselves.”

Thus far, Haye has held the WBA heavyweight title for all of five months and already he and his trainer are asking for a 50-50 deal with Klitschko. Incredible! That takes a lot of gall. Wladimir has been considered to be the best heavyweight in the division for at least five years now, and has been a champion for four of the years. And now Haye comes along and barely beats a fading, weak-punching, poor moving paper champion in Nikolay Valuev by a 12 round majority decision and then beats an old fighter in John Ruiz and then Haye expects to get a fight on even financial terms?

That’s pretty funny and kind of sad. That’s like taking a class in how not to make a fight with someone. I think in terms of accomplishment, Haye deserves 20% of the revenue with Wladimir getting the lion share of 80%. Haye doesn’t have enough experience at heavyweight to get a better deal. Wladimir has more belts than Haye and has held them longer. Wladimir is a worldwide star, whereas Haye is just a star in the UK. People don’t have clue one who Haye is in the United States.

I ask people all the time if they’ve ever heard of Haye and to this day not one person that I’ve asked has ever heard of Haye, and these are casual boxing fans I’m asking. Haye is a huge star in the UK, but what good is that if no one else in the world has heard of Haye. I think Wladimir would be giving Haye a great deal if he gave him 20% of the revenue, because I think he might even be worth less. Haye should take it and be happy.

I think it will be his first and only fight with the Klitschkos because I see Wladimir knocking him cold. There won’t be a fight with Vitali Klitschko for Haye, not that he wants one. It’s weird how now Haye is asking for the Klitschko brothers to fight each other, so that Haye won’t have to fight both of them. I wonder if he’s lost his nerve. I knew it was going to be like this. As soon as Haye beat Valuev, an easy mark that a lot of the top contenders would likely easily beat, Haye would get a good payday and then quickly lose interest in fighting the Klitschko brothers.

Look at it this way: by Haye asking for a 50-50 deal with Wladimir, basically it’s like he’s saying he doesn’t want to fight Wladimir. Really. He’s got to know with his lack of experience at heavyweight, Wladimir is going to take an offer of 50-50 as an insult and walk away mad. He’s not going to accept that and I don’t blame him. All Haye is done is beat a handful of fighters that really should be 2nd tier at this point and not world class in my view. And I don’t count Haye’s experience at cruiserweight. That’s the weakest division in boxing. Come on. Can you imagine what Wladimir would do to Jean Marc Mormeck or Enzo Maccarinelli? Those were Haye’s best fights at cruiserweight. It wouldn’t even be a fight. Wladimir would likely beat both fighters without ever getting hit.

Haye says “I don’t care if those two fight in the boxing ring or in the back yard at their mum’s house but that is what they should do. They keep bleating about fighting me but if they are serious about unifying the world title there is a very quick way to get it done and dusted — box each other and then the winner takes me on. If they don’t want to upset any members of their family, then one brother should give the other his belts before stepping into the ring with me.”

It’s incredible how Haye seems to have totally changed his mind about wanting to fight both Klitschko brothers. He sounds as if he doesn’t want to be bothered by having to do that. Haye is always bellyaching about his legacy, but now it looks like he doesn’t want to put in the work to make the legacy. He’s trying take shortcut by having one Klitschko brother fight the other, just so that Haye doesn’t have to fight the other one. I can only guess who Haye would be fighting his other three last fights against. Probably some more weak heavyweight opposition like he’s been fighting. I think Haye is milking his title and not serious about wanting to fight Wladimir.