‘I’ll visit you in hospital’, Haye taunts Klitschko

Britain’s world heavyweight champion David Haye has said he will only shake the hand of Wladimir Klitschko when he visits him in hospital after their eagerly awaited unification bout on Saturday.

Klitschko, the IBF and WBO title holder, takes on Britain’s Haye, the WBA champion, at Hamburg’s Imtech Arena this weekend.

There is no love lost between the pair.

Haye has not wasted any opportunities to antagonise Ukrainian giant Klitschko and refused to shake hands with the fellow champion at Monday’s pre-fight press conference.

“I will shake hands with you when I visit you in hospital on Sunday,” said.

“It will be an execution like there has never been seen in boxing before.”

This is the first heavyweight unification bout since Klitschko took the WBO title from Russia’s Sultan Ibragimov in Madison Square Garden in February 2008.

This will be only Haye’s fifth heavyweight fight since stepping up from cruiserweight in 2008 and although he has a record of 25 wins with 23 knock-outs from 26 fights, most of them came at the lighter weight.