Wladimir Klitschko beat Britain’s David Haye in a unanimous points decision on Saturday to add the WBA heavyweight title to his three other belts and complete his family’s domination of the division.
The Ukrainian, whose lighter and smaller opponent took him the full 12 rounds despite fighting with a broken toe, was declared the winner 117-109, 118-108 and 116-110 by the two American and one South African judges.
While denied the 50th career knockout he had hoped for, Klitschko — now 56-3 — had more than enough reason to celebrate with his brother and WBC champion, Vitali.
Photo: Reuters
They now hold the WBA, WBC, WBO, IBF and IBO belts between them and have achieved their lifelong dream of uniting the division in the family.
“I would have loved to celebrate my 50th knockout,” said the youngest of the brothers, at 35, who was taunted publicly by the trash-talking English showman Haye in the build-up to the fight and had promised to punish him.
“I am still not okay with his behavior before the fight,” the giant “Dr Steelhammer” added. “It’s definitely disgraceful to the boxing fans, to the sport of boxing, the way the man behaved himself. I think the fight talked for itself.”
Klitschko aimed and landed far more blows than Haye, who was unable to connect with his famed “Hayemaker,” while being picked off by his opponent’s jab.
The 30-year-old Briton, now 25-2 after his first defeat in seven years, said afterward that had more to do with the secret injury he was carrying.
“I broke my toe about three weeks ago,” Hayes said. “I didn’t let anyone know that. I’ve been giving it local anesthetics in the gym ... that’s why I stopped sparring. My Hayemaker wasn’t there, I couldn’t push off my right foot to land that shot. It was really frustrating.”
Haye said he had considered pulling out of the fight, but had refused to let down the considerable British support among the 50,000 strong crowd who made the trip to Germany for their biggest heavyweight fight in nearly a decade.
Yet, after all the hype, Haye could not deliver on a rainy night in Hamburg.
Klitschko, 13.6kg heavier and with a longer reach, dictated the early rounds and used his weight and height to push Haye to the floor repeatedly.
American referee Genaro Rodriguez docked him a point in the seventh round for the offense, but then controversially gave Haye a standing count in the 11th after what had looked like another blatant push.
Haye, who had vowed to “make the robot malfunction,” kept his gloves contemptuously low for much of the fight and drew blood from Klitschko’s right nostril in the fourth round, before himself suffering a cut to the nose in the fifth.
The Briton’s punches were too often wild and off target, while Klitschko used his left hook and jab to good effect.
“He’s 30-odd pounds heavier than me and hit me with some of his best shots,” said Haye, who reserved judgment on whether he will retire as stated in October.
“I didn’t go down, I wasn’t hurt at any stage. I think I’ve proved that I’m a great fighter,” he said. “He played it smart and kept hitting me with the jab and occasional right hand, all credit to Wladimir.”
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but