HAMBURG, Germany, May 9 – Britain's world heavyweight champion David Haye on Monday branded IBF and WBO champion Wladimir Klitschko a 'fraud' when the pair met to promote their unification bout here on July 2.
Haye, 30, the WBA heavyweight champion, will face fellow world champion Klitschko of the Ukraine in just less than eight weeks with an expected sell-out 57,000 fans expected to be here at the open-air football stadium.
There is no love-lost between the pair who were due to meet two years ago in Gelsenkirchen but a back injury forced Haye out.
Before the fight, the brash Brit posed in a magazine with a mocked up image of him brandishing Klitschko’s severed head.
Two years on, Haye is now the WBA champion after beating Russia’s Nikolai Valuev in November 2009 and he says he plans on exposing Wladimir as a fraud who takes only easy fights.
"He’s a fraud and I am good at exposing frauds, as I showed in my last fight," said Haye, who beat ex-Olympic champion Audley Harrison inside three rounds last November.
"I will make it a bit more exciting this time.
"I believe he is a fraud, down to the fact he wears shoulder pads into the ring and he only picks the guys who he knows he can beat."
It is in the contract that Haye will face elder Klitschko brother Vitali, the WBC heavyweight champion, if Wladimir is injured.
With 55 wins, 49 knock-outs and three defeats to his record, Klitschko has said he will make Haye his 50th knock-out in two months time.
"I have had it written in the contract that David Haye must be the first to get into the ring, only when I know he is in the ring, then I will come out to fight," said Klitschko, who was turned down when he tried to shake Haye’s hand.
"I am very happy to see David here, but he shows no respect whatsoever.
"I believe it will be a good lesson, you are going to learn some respect.
"You’re record is very impressive, so I will prepare for this fight.
"David Haye is going to be my 50th knock-out victim."
Haye has said he plans on then beating Vitali to claim all the major titles and expects the elder Klitschko to come to the table after he has ‘decapitated’ younger brother Wladimir.
Vitali Klitschko is set to face Poland’s Tomasz Adamek in Warsaw in September.
With the fight set to take place in the open-air, a huge rig will be constructed over the stage to make sure possible heavy rain on the night does not threaten the fight.
