by Johnny Walker
In defiance of the professional moralists in the mainstream sports media and their calculated and manufactured outrage, as well as of the ineffectual British Boxing Board of Control, UK heavyweights Dereck “Del Boy” Chisora and former WBA champion David Haye announced today that they would give the boxing public what it wants, and fight each other on July 14 in London, England.
Adding to the tension of the occasion, the presser featured the fighters—who famously scrapped at a post-fight presser in Munich, Germany following Chisora’s loss to WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko—separated by a seven foot high steel fence.
Explaining that he originally intended to come back from a brief retirement to fight one or both of world champions Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko, the always loquacious Haye said that public opinion brought him back against Chisora.
“People kept coming up to me on the street, people who weren’t boxing fans, regular people on the street, saying, ‘Dereck, he’s an idiot, you’ve got to knock him out, you’ve gotta do it,’ Haye explained in his usual animated fashion.
“So I thought, ‘OK then, why not?’
“In my mind I was anticipating fighting Vitali Klitschko in the summer, so … I was gearing up to a fight in the summer anyway. [A fight with Vitali] doesn’t look like it’s happening for awhile, so why not?
“It seems like it’s a no-brainer. I don’t think there’s too many people, who if they were in my position, wouldn’t go through with this fight.
“[Chisora] obviously didn’t learn his lesson in Germany, so I’ve got to do it officially, in front of everybody … I can expose him, officially, and it can be on my record for doing that as well.”
“We’ve heard it all before,” Chisora sneered at Haye.
“David gives all the big talk, all the big talk … you get in the ring and you don’t deliver.
“It’s all big talk anyway, so you know what David, you keep talking. The more you keep talking the more you’re getting me upset. The more you get me upset, the more I jump over this [fence] right now….”
“And get knocked out again, eh?” Haye quipped.
“We already played that game before and you lost.”
“I saw David Haye a couple of weeks ago in London, and guess what he picked up, he picked up a knife,” Chisora continued.
“I was eating a steak,” Haye scoffed.
“There was nothing on the table,” Chisora continued. “He knows I’m a bad man. If you want to have it, we can have it now.”
And these two are just getting started.
Given the history between the two men and the level of animosity still quite evident, Haye versus Chisora promises to be one of the most heavily anticipated heavyweight fights in years, not just in the UK, but world-wide.