The old King is dead, long live the King?

   

                                             The top two in the world fought it out in the open air stadium but it wasn’t a classic. Perhaps it never would be with the title holder carrying an injury; however we can take nothing away from the new world number one, Djokovic fully deserving his maiden Wimbledon. A world championship boxing match took place on Saturday night last weekend also but it certainly won’t live long in the memory. Wladimir Klitschko systematically took apart David Haye in Hamburg and won a unanimous points decision. Haye can have few complaints and although carrying (not literally) a broken toe into the ring, the Ukranian was far the classier pugilist and utilised his jab with monotonous regularity, wearing Haye down without even having to unleash the right. Obviously all athletes want to perform at 100% and Haye has made much of the fact that his broken toe didn’t allow him to throw his ‘Hayemaker’ with as much ferocity as he would have wished. If he truly believes that a broken toe weakened his punching power to the extent that he was unable to land any telling blows on Klitschko, then he is very much mistaken. The reason he didn’t land any blows was because ‘Dr Steelhammer’ never let him get inside and when Klitschko feared that Haye was getting too close he used his ring nous and pushed him away. The Londoner made the most of this ‘leaning in’ and the referee did take a point away from Klitschko in the seventh because of this. This didn’t affect Wladimir’s confidence whatsoever and Haye knew by the eleventh that it was all over barring a knockout on his part. The really surprising thing was that Haye didn’t really come out swinging in the final round. He knew that he was behind yet didn’t throw wild swings with reckless abandonment. In this blogger’s opinion, if you want to be regarded as the world’s best, then you have to be willing to show blatant disregard for your own well-being when the time is right. Just ask the likes of Brian O’Driscoll and Ray Lewis (Ravens linebacker). Haye seemed intent on leaving the ring with only his ego bruised and was ready with his broken toe excuse the moment the decision was read out. On reflection, he will admit that he was outclassed and outfought and while he will be remembered as a great Cruiserweight, a great heavyweight he will not. “It is what it is”, as Haye would say.