WLADIMIR KLITSCHKO
claims he has the backing of British fans who have turned against Londoner David Haye.
claims he has the backing of British fans who have turned against Londoner David Haye.The Ukrainian says he has a growing army of UK supporters ahead of his world heavyweight title unification clash with Haye in Hamburg on July 2.
IBF-WBO champion Klitschko, 35, insists he has been inundated by messages of support from Brits who want him to silence Haye.Klitschko, who is a huge star in Germany where he lives, reckons WBA king Haye’s trash-talk has backfired and alienated him from some of his home fanbase.
He said: “I’m surprised but I’ve met a lot of British people who wish me good luck. I said this is your countryman I don’t understand why you are telling me that. Do you just want to make me feel good and will you tell the same thing to David Haye?
“I don’t understand, guys. You should be supportive of your countryman. I was really surprised how many people over there in Britain were more supportive of me than of David Haye. It’s shocking actually.
“It’s not about nationality. It’s about the personality. It doesn’t matter where he is from.
“I have a lot of friends that are from London in particular, so they are British. I’m aware of a certain rivalry between Germany and Britain in soccer.
“But I wouldn’t put this as competing between two countries. Sport has one language and that is performance. If you perform well people will accept you, it doesn’t matter where you come from.
“Manny Pacquiao is not American but he creates a lot of excitement in the US. It doesn’t matter where you are from, Britain or Germany, that’s the language that sport has.”
Klitschko’s American trainer Emanuel Steward, who guided London-born Lennox Lewis to the undisputed world heavyweight title, added: “Haye has made comments about gang rape that have not been received well publicly. He has done a lot of unethical things that haven’t made him popular like guys like Lennox.”
Klitschko is currently training with Steward at a luxury spa hotel in the Austrian Alps where guests dressed in nothing but white dressing gowns look on as he does his sparring in the Stanglwirt Hotel complex’s tennis centre.
It is a bizarre place to find a world heavyweight champion preparing and in total contrast to Haye, who prefers to do his training under a railway arch amid the commotion of central London.
But despite the peace and tranquility of Klitschko’s Alpine hideaway, he insists he will still be ready for a fearless, aggressive and explosive Haye because of his split personality.
He said: “I’m two people, I’m not a person in the ring. I’m like an actor getting into the role.
“It’s not Wladimir Klitschko in the ring. I need two weeks after the fight to get out of the role. I have to rediscover myself.”
Klitschko claims his tough upbringing in a Soviet sports academy has left him with no fear of The Hayemaker.
He added: “I was 14 years old when I went to the Soviet School of Sport. Trust me it was tough, really tough.
“There were guys there a lot more talented than me, but some were broken by the system. The coaches treated them in a brutal way.
“The training system was horrible. But if you survive it, if you make it, you are made out of steel.”
Haye v Klitschko is exclusively live on Sky Box Office HD & 3D on Saturday 2 July. Book now on: sky.com/orderboxoffice
Source: dailystar.co.uk
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