Britain’s Heavyweight, David Haye Stripped Of Title

By Dayo Farore

Ukranian Heavyweight boxer, Wladimir Klitschko a.k.a Dr. Steel hammer stripped Britain’s champion, David ‘Hayemaker’ Haye of his title yesterday evening, Saturday, July 3, 2011 at the Imtech Arena in Hamburg, Germany. The much anticipated fight however didn’t end in a knock-out as expected by fans from both sides. Klitschko emerged the champ on the night by points decided by the judges. Decided scores were 118-108, 117-109 and 116 – 110 for Klitschko. The night’s win marked the Ukranian’s 14th straight victory and in total now at 56-3 (49KO), bringing Haye down to 25-2 (23KO). Klitschko had a 3-inch height advantage last night and weighed in at 242 pounds to 213 for the 30-year-old Briton.

Yesterday’s defeat didn’t just disgrace the Briton, it also went on to shatter Haye’s goal of emerging as Britain’s first unified world heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis, although this was his first defeat since the last in seven years by Bolton veteran Carl Thompson, which marked his first defeat. The Briton however insists on sticking to the final fight he has planned with Wladmir’s brother, Vitali Klitschko before his supposed retirement in October this year to mark his 31st birthday.

Haye who admitted his performance in the end was subpar, went with the alibi, ‘I broke my right toe about three weeks ago, and was unable to push off on it. I didn’t want to tell anyone about it but I was unable to push off on my left hook and trademark Hayemark‘. And 35-year old Klitschko on the other hand laments, ‘It was disgraceful for the sport. It wasn’t in the line of Joe Louis, Larry Holmes and all of the great champions of the past. I wanted to so badly to knock him out. He was scared to fight me. I was expecting more of a challenge in the ring‘.

Last night’s match ranked as the biggest heavyweight fight since the Lennox Lewis – Mike Tyson clash in 2002 with a television audience of 500Million in 150countries worldwide.