David Haye to fight for VBA title

NIKOLAI Valuev will defend his WBA heavyweight title against British star David Haye in Germany on November 7, organisers have confirmed.
The fight, real announced in July, had been in doubt over a legal quarrel involving American John Ruiz, who claimed he was Valuev’s mandatory challenger.
German promoters Sauerland have reached a deal with Ruiz’s team to allow the Valuev-Haye fight to go ahead, with the bout taking place at Nuremberg’s Arena Nurnberger Versicherung.

David Haye: Ready to hit the heights against Nikolai Valuev

David Haye ends his exile from the ring tomorrow when he begins the first of 200 intense rounds of sparring at his new gym in central London.
Haye, who is 6ft 3in, fights 7ft Nikolai Valuev for the WBA heavyweight title in Germany on November 7, and he said: "There are sparring partners coming in from Russia, Germany and America for the first week and I'll need more. This is the fight of my life and I need to be in the condition of my life that is what hard sparring is all about.
"I remember watching Lennox Lewis belt the life out of his sparring partners and thinking it was a bit harsh.
"Lennox told me a heavyweight title fight demands the hardest possible sparring. I'm not going to hold back against the giants that I'm bringing in because I want to knock over big men."
Haye's trainer and promotional partner, Adam Booth, has spent six weeks compiling a list of the sport's tallest and heaviest fighters.
Booth said, "It's an extreme fight and I've gone to extreme lengths to guarantee that David gets the right sparring"

Tyson Fury, David Haye happy to spar

David Haye is keen to spar with the young heavyweight sethesis Tyson Fury ahead of his WBA title clash with the Russian giant Nikolai Valuev in November. Haye will attempt to take the WBA title off 7ft 2in Valuev when they meet in Germany on 7 November.
Haye acknowledges he is stepping into the unknown in just his second fight at heavyweight against a man nearly a foot taller than himself. And he admits working with the unbeaten 21-year old Fury who is 6ft 8in tall could benefit both men, with Fury (8-0) often complaining about a stortage of willing sparring partners.
"If Tyson Fury is available, then yes," said Haye. "I'm around at the moment and if he's got a fight coming up I am more than willing to spar with him. He doesn't have to pay me, that's for sure. If he wants to come down and do some work with me I'd more than treasure it and I'm sure he would also."
Haye's trainer Adam Booth believes his man can adapt and work his way around Valuev's size. "I don't necessarily think Valuev's style is wrong for David," he said. "He's always thrived on taller and bigger opponents and ever since he was young he has always sparred with people heavier than him.
"But we're not under-estimating Valuev. There's an easy, obvious statement to make about Valuev that he's big so he's slow. But he's really not that slow, if you look at the tapes of his left hand. And he's very effective at going 12 rounds.
"Although he's even admitted himself he is still learning to box, he's only got to be a certain percentage of what other fighters have to be because he's got those attributes of his height and his weight to carry him along. So you have to look at what he does best, not what he does worst. We'll prepare David for what Valuev does best and then have the answers for that."

David Haye: Jay-Z is a fan of boxer David Haye

Jay-Z thinks boxer David Haye is a knockout. The champ was introduced to the rapper after his show with Coldplay.
Says our mole: "David's a huge Jay-Z fan and was pretty starstruck when they met.
And Jay-Z was equally bowled over and tried to get David a drink but he's teetotal in the build up to a bout. Jay-Z's now preparation on flying over for the fight in November."

Rplicate Holyfield David Haye to ready

David Haye believes he has what it takes to beat the giant Nikolay Valuev before becoming the unchallenged heavyweight champion.The British boxer meets the seven foot two 'Beast From The East' on November 7 with Valuev's WBA belt on the line as Haye prepares to compete for his first title at heavyweight. The 28-year-old was the undisputed cruiserweight champion before making the step up in weight and despite having not had a competitive fight since November last year, Haye believes he is destine to beat Valuev before moving on to greatness."My job is to knock out Nikolai Valuev and become the heavyweight champion of the world. I will be the first British champion since Lennox Lewis and that has always been my aim, to be a two weight world champion," Haye told Sky Sports News."I was undisputed cruiserweight champion and my plan is to go up in weight and do what only one other fighter in history has done that's Evander Holyfield and then become the undisputed world heavyweight champion. The Valuev fight is the next step."

new professional David Price A path to London 2012 opens

David Price has been offered the chance to become the first professional to box at an Olympic Games.
The Liverpudlian turned professional after winning a bronze medal at super heavyweight in Beijing last summer and boxing is the only Olympic sport that excludes professionals.
But the International Boxing Association (AIBA), the amateur world governing body, has agreed a deal that would allow Price to compete in the newly formed World Series of Boxing (WSB) and go to London 2012.
British boxers failed to win a medal at the World Amateur Championships that finished in Milan on Saturday and the cupboard looked particularly bare in the biggest weight division, in which Andy Jones, the British ABA champion, who was sent by Wales after not being selected by Great Britain, was stopped after 99 seconds of his opening bout by Erislandy Savón, a adolescent from Cuba.
The WSB, which is 25 per cent owned by IMG, the sports marketing giant, is the AIBA’s answer to the loss of its talent to the professional code, allowing boxers to be paid, while retaining their power to compete at the Olympics. Rather than competing individually, boxers will be part of teams, over five weight divisions, each competing in five round bouts, with no headguards or vests and with professional style scoring. There will be 12 franchises based over three continents. A deal has been agreed for London to host a franchise, which will not be qualified to British boxers.
At the end of a regular season, there would be play offs to decide a winning team and individual rankings. Boxers would be offered the security of three year contracts worth between $40,000 (about £24,000) and $300,000 with prize money on top.
Only “professionals” competing in the WSB will be allowed to box at the Olympics, boxers who have already turned professional or who leave the system will be excluded. An exemption has been offered to Price, although he is far from certain to take it.
Price, 26, made a winning professional debut in March, after signing with Hayemaker, the promotional company of David Haye. However, after working as Haye’s sparring partner in Cyprus before the cancelled bout with Wladimir Klitschko when Setanta, the television company that had a deal with Hayemaker, went to the wall Price was not offered any more bouts.
His deal with Hayemaker has expired, but Price is believed to have received offers from at least three professional promoters as well as the WSB.
The British Boxing Board of Control (BBBC) has come under pressure to appoint three judges in all title bouts after Tyson Fury’s controversial English heavyweight title win over John McDermott on Friday. The points verdict, which was widely criticised, was made by Terry O’Connor, the referee, who made Fury a 98-92 points winner, while most observers saw McDermott as the winner. BBBC rules state that every bout beneath British title level is decided only by the reader, unlike most countries where all bouts are decided by three judges.

'David Haye is a faker', Vitali Klitschko suggests

Vitali Klitschko has questioned whether David Haye was actually injured when he pulled out of boxing his brother, Wladimir.
Haye, 28, claimed a back problem led to him disconcerting his fight against IBF-WBO world heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko.
He also pulled out of talks to fight Vitali, rather striking a deal to challenge Russian Nikolai Valuev for his WBA version of the world title, in Germany on November 7.
WBC champion Vitali, 38, said: "Haye is not a dangerous fighter. I doubt he had an hurt when he gave up the fight against Wladimir.
"We gave Haye the same contract he got with Wladimir to fight me. Against me, Haye had little opportunity to take the title and that's why he didn't take the fight. I don't think about him any more."