David Haye makes big play of rival's 'boring' style

David Haye has described Wladimir Klitschko's style as boring and said the Ukrainian boxer had been solely responsible for "killing" the popularity of the heavyweight division.

The two will face each other in a unification bout in Hamburg on 2 July and yesterday shared a press conference in London, having attended a similar event to promote the fight at Hamburg's Imtech Arena the previous day.

Briton Haye said he was keeping the verbal sparring to a minimum in order to train for a "conclusive and explosive" victory over Klitschko, the holder of the IBF, IBO and WBO titles. However, he could not resist a few digs at his opponent, whom he promised to beat by knock-out.

"I'm really happy the fight has finally been signed and I'm happy I've got my man," the WBA champion said at the press conference.

"You are going to see a unified heavyweight champion.

"I believe Wladimir Klitschko is solely responsible for killing the heavyweight division, for making sure the heavyweight championship hasn't been shown worldwide.

"A few channels here and there but not the big boys, they've turned off to it. The average boxing fan has turned off to it. Finally they have come back to it for this particular fight, and that's because of me - my speed, my athleticism and what I do inside the ring.

"He made some joke about my Twitter page - he's trying to come up with jokes and his personality is exactly how he fights - boring. That is exactly why he needs to be eradicated from the heavyweight division.

"Jab, jab, grab. Jab, jab, grab. That's all he does. On fight night his circuits will be blown."

Klitschko, for his part tried to endear himself to British boxing fans by praising the atmosphere they had created on big fight nights in the past but then directed a pun towards Haye. "I saw the Hayemaker magazine, and I opened it - (it was about) me, me and more me. With this magazine, you could change the H to a G, it would be funnier and better for sales," Klitschko said.

Haye has described the 49 boxers Klitschko has fought to this point as "bums" but the Ukrainian insists this fight will be no different.

"Here in London I want to present David Haye. There were 49 before but he called them bums. I would like to present number 50, David Haye," Klitschko added.