Roach not keen on Pacman duel with Khan

MANILA, Philippines - This early, Freddie Roach is stomping his foot on a Manny Pacquiao-Amir Khan showdown.
The celebrated trainer is handling the corners of both fighters, and he said there’s no way he’d draw the line between them.

Four-time Trainer of the Year Freddie Roach with pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao.

Pacquiao, at 32, is currently boxing's biggest draw, as pound-for-pound champion and the WBC/WBO welterweight champion.
Khan is only 24 but has shown enough flare and tremendous improvement in each fight, and many believe that he has what it takes to match up with Pacquiao.
Last week, the Englishman stopped Zab Hudah inside five rounds to unify the IBF and WBA light-welterweight titles.
Pacquiao and Khan train under one roof, whether it's at the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles or in the Philippines, as perfect sparring partners.
Roach said that's as far as it should go.

Banal retains WBO title vs Cave

MANILA, Philippines – AJ 'Bazooka' Banal retained his WBO Asia-Pacific Bantamweight title against Tyson Cave via an 8th round technical decision in Pinoy Pride 7: Battle at Mactan.
Banal was able to win despite having trouble with Cave's unorthodox style and antics.
The official time was 2:32 of the 8th round. All the judges gave the bout to Banal, with scores of 79-73, 78-74, and 78-74.

AJ Banal and Tyson Cave collide.

Banal aimed to hurt Cave through body punches, but the wily Canadian kept moving out of Banal's way. In the 1st round, Banal was able to unleash a left straight that staggered Cave backwards, but the latter recovered and even danced a little.
From the 2nd until the 4th rounds, Cave looked to frustrate

Cotto wants rematch with Pacquiao

MANILA, Philippines – Miguel Cotto is aiming to avenge his 1 of 2 career losses by fighting Antonio Margarito on December 3.
After that, the Puerto Rican will aim for a rematch with pound-for-pound king Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao, the man who gave Cotto his 2nd career loss.
"Cotto's going to fight Margarito, then a rematch with Manny Pacquiao, or maybe a fight with Saul Alvarez," Manny Steward,

Floyd beating up sparring partners: trainer

MANILA, Philippines – Floyd Mayweather Jr. is curently training for his September 17 bout against 'Vicious' Victor Ortiz.

Floyd Mayweather Jr.

According to his uncle and trainer, Roger Mayweather, Floyd has been "putting in work."
"Floyd's just being Floyd," Mayweather told Examiner.com. "Ain’t much changed in the boxing or sparring."

Pacquiao vs Marquez 3 Tale of the Tape

	Manny Pacquiao	Juan Manuel Marquez
Stance	Southpaw	Orthodox
Height	5'6 ½"	5'7"
Reach	67"	67"
Neck	16"

Marquez Vows Not To Make the Same Mistakes Again

With the bouts have been made in their last two fights, Marquez sets sails to the conclusion of their third fight on November 12 at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas. Marquez says this fight will resolve all the clouded issues in the past and will settle it good all in his favor. It took eight years to materialize the fight and it has come to the attention of many that the last third fight will definitely be a good one.
The wait is now over as the showdown between the two gifted warriors are all set to happen owing their promoters a great deal when it comes to a fantastic match of action packed boxing. The wait could have been longer but Bob Arum made the fight real.
Can the Mexican beat Paquiao’s speed and strength? Has the last two fights gave Marquez the experience he needs to take him down in his third fight? A warrior such as Marquez has reached to a high degree of excellence since he moved up to certain weight categories. By far Marquez is the only fighter that can trade punches with Pacquiao and hurt him much unlike any boxer Pacquiao has fought in the past.
Marquez has setting up some tricks up his sleeves by not rushing in through the first early rounds but rather neutralizing Pacquiao’s speed and power punches. But even with a fast knock out destruction early on in the first few rounds, Marquez needs to penetrate deeper within Pacquiao’s thick armor to really hurt him much. Juan Manuel Marquez must employ cunning tactics and innovative tricks to surprise Manny or nothing new might happen to their blockbuster fight. Pacquiao is set to defend his WBO welterweight title while Marquez is busy working out strategies to defeat Pacquiao in his last chance to redeem his name.

Manny Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Marquez III Tickets Go On Sale This Friday, July 22 At 10am PT

Chapter three of boxing’s best-selling rivalry goes on sale this week. The No. 1 pound-for-pound box office attraction and the Fighter of the Decade, MANNY “Pacman” PACQUIAO (54-3-2, 38 KOs), the lone congressional representative from the Sarangani province in the Philippines, returns to the Fight Capital of the World to defend his World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight title against professional nemesis, three-division world champion and future Hall of Famer JUAN MANUEL MARQUEZ (53-5-1, 39 KOs), of México City. Pacquiao-Marquez III erupts Saturday, November 12 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nev.

"My fight with Manny Pacquiao is going to be a war," said Marquez, Saturday night in Cancún, México, following his first-round knockout of former world champion Likar Ramos.

Promoted by Top Rank, in association with MP Promotions and MGM Grand, tickets to Pacquiao-Marquez III, priced at $1,200, $900, $600, $400, and $200, go on sale this Friday, July 22, at 1 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT. Ticket sales at $1,200, $900, $600 and $400 are limited to 10 per person and ticket sales at $200 are limited to two (2) per person. To charge by phone with a major credit card, call Ticketmaster (800) 745-3000. Tickets also will be available for purchase at www.mgmgrand.com or www.ticketmaster.com.

Khan-Judah half as good as Naseem Hamed vs. Kevin Kelly

By Brad Jones: Photo Credits Joe Comporeale – Over 14 years ago a young brash British boxer Naseem Hamed crossed the pond to take on the best America had to offer Kevin Kelly. What a great fight it was while it lasted in what was the modern days featherweight version of Hagler vs. Hearns.
The fight was a seesaw of knock downs hammed down in the 1st both fighter down in the 2nd Hammed down in the 4th before rising of the canvas to hit Kevin with blistering flurry that knock Kevin Kelly out cold! Tomorrow night Amir Khan and Zab Judah meet in a unification bout of the World Boxing Association (WBA) and IBF straps Amir is no Hammed I am under no illusion but if this is half as good as Hammed vs Kelly we are in for a hell of a fight.
The reason I feel this is both guys chins Judah’s of late have been under question both have a lot of heart and will not back down and both come to win which always helps .Like Hammed Khan crosses the pond a young hungry lion who’s exiting. Zab Judah like Kevin comes to win has a great boxing pedigree and is in home soil with allot to prove if its anything like Kelly-Hamed we will be in for a treat.

Fury: The Chisora fight is unofficially a world title eliminator for a bout against Wladimir

By Sean McDaniel: Photo credit: Trieger, Action images – Two big British heavyweights Dereck Chisora and Tyson Fury go at on Saturday night for what could be a fight where the winner gets a shot against IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, who is waiting for the dust to clear from this fight to see whether he’ll accept the winner as a challenger.
Chisora and Fury can help themselves in a big way to get a nice payday against Wladimir by winning impressively.
If either of these guys win in stinker, it’s likely Wladimir will move in a different direction rather than wasting time fighting someone who looked poor. Wladimir needs an opponent that will bring some excitement because in his last fight he was matched against a runner David Haye and the fight turned out to be a really boring affair with Wladimir easily winning.
“Wladimir has shown a lot of interest in the winner of this fight,” Fury said to the independent.co.uk. “Unofficially, this is a world title eliminator. Hopefully, the winner will do a better job than Haye, which won’t be hard.”
Chisora weighed in at a career high of 261 pounds at Friday’s weight, and things into question whether he’ll be fit enough to fight hard full the 12 rounds. Chisora looked to be fading last year in his bout against Sam Sexton but was able to pull out a 9th round knockout with a huge blitz.
It’s questionable whether Chisora will be able to do the same with the taller Fury, who has a good chin. With the weight that Chisora is carrying around, he might want to try to attack Fury hard in the early part of the fight while Chisora still has enough energy to score a knockout. If he waits too long, he could end up running out of gas and losing.
It’s questionable whether Fury or Chisora could do better than Haye because neither of them have the quick reflexes, the foot movement or the power that Haye possesses. If Wladimir doesn’t have anything to really worry about with either of these guys, he’ll pour it on with right hands and left hooks and score a stoppage in what will likely be a one-sided fight. I can’t say I see either of them doing a better job than Haye.

Khan to make $1 million, Judah $500,000 for Saturday’s fight

By Dan Ambrose: Photo Credit Joe Comporeale – WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (25-1, 17 KO’s) will be making decent money on Saturday night against IBF light welterweight champion Zab Judah (41-6, 28 KO’s) with a payday of $1,072,500, according to boxing news from Dan Rafael.This, of course, doesn’t even count the UK money that Khan will be receiving for the bout. It will be shown on Primetime Pay-Per-View in the UK, and Khan could make a lot more than that if his numbers for his fight against the less than popular Paul McCloskey are any indication.
Judah, 33, will be making $500,000, which is good money for him given that he hasn’t really done much in terms of big fights since his bout with Miguel Cotto four years ago in 2007. Judah, a one time big star of the sport, fell off after that fight and hasn’t had any big time bouts until now. Judah won’t be sharing in any of Khan’s UK money, and that’s something he’s obviously not pleased about.
However, if he beats Khan on Saturday night, the chances are high that Judah will get a fight in 2012 against either Floyd Mayweather Jr or Manny Pacquiao. All Judah would have to do is make sure he wins one more fight in 2011 against a likely soft opponent and Judah would be in a good position to get a big money bout against Pacquiao or Mayweather. Khan wants the Mayweather fight himself and he’d be fit to be tied if Judah wins, but Khan is young enough to rebuild and still get big fights in the future. He may or may not still get a Mayweather bout if he loses to Judah, but Khan is young enough to where he can get fights against other stars and future stars later on down the road.

Paul Williams looking to fight Carlos Molina next

By Eric Thomas: With his controversial 12 round majority decision over Erislandy Lara last weekend, Paul Williams (40-2, 27 KO’s) is moving on to bigger and better things rather than trying to clear up matters by giving the southpaw Lara a rematch. Williams is now reportedly targeting junior middleweight fringe contender Carlos Molina (19-4-2, 6 KO’s) for his next fight, according to boxing news from Dan Rafael on his twitter.

Molina isn’t well known among casual boxing fans, but he’s known by hardcore fans and is coming off of an impressive 10 round unanimous decision win last Saturday night over Kermit Cintron. Earlier this year, Molina and Lara fought to a controversial 10 round draw in a fight that many fans felt Molina should have won in March. Molina landed the better shots in that fight and wore Lara down on the inside during the second half of the bout. However, the scores didn’t reflect that actual fight that took place in the year. Williams looked poor in beating Lara last Saturday night, and more than a few fans think that Williams should have lost. However, if Williams can beat Molina, the guy that fans thought should have been given the decision over Lara, then Williams will be redeeming himself in a way.
Molina, 28, is no stranger to controversial decisions, as he lost two fights to Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and another fight to Mike Alvarado in the past. A lot of boxing fans thought that Molina should have won all three of those fights and I’m in agreement with that. I thought was clearly the better man in his two bouts with Chavez Jr. and slightly better than Alvarado.
One of the problems that is keeping Williams from going back and giving Lara a rematch is that Williams is only planning on fighting two or three more times and then retiring from boxing. Because of this, he’s trying to get the most out of the little time he has left in the sport.
Although it would be nice for Williams to fight Lara again, it’s not a fight that would attract a lot of attention from the larger casual fans, who have no clue who Lara is. Williams is better off moving on and taking on more popular fighters that can bring him more money before he retires. Williams would like to fight Sergio Martinez one more time. They’ve fought twice with Williams winning the first fight and Martinez the second. Williams wants more shot to see who the better fighter is.

Nacho Beristain: “Pacquiao will beat Mayweather”

By John F. McKenna (McJack): Legendary Mexican trainer Ignacio “Nacho” Beristain in Atlantic City this past weekend had a surprising response when asked if he thought Manny Pacquiao (53-3-2, 38 KO’s) would beat Floyd Mayweather (41-0, 25 KO’s) if the two were to meet.
The surprise was not that “Nacho” thought Pacquiao would defeat Mayweather. As reported in the Boxing Insider, what was surprising was that Beristain said that a victory by Manny over Floyd would be bad for boxing.
“It’s a very good, important fight but that fight should not happen,” stated Beristain. “Because I believe that Pacquiao will beat Mayweather your going to take away the glory that has made Mayweather these past years. Mayweather’s style – when he fights someone that pressures him and throws a lot of punches – he just beats him up.”
Beristain said that it would not be an easy fight for Pacquiao, but that he would definitely win.
Beristain has had plenty of close experience watching Pacquiao. He was in the corner of Juan Manuel Marquez for his two fights with Manny and he was also in the corner of Oscar De Lahoya when he took the vicious beating from Pac-Man.
When Beristain was asked what makes Pacquiao so effective, so great, he responded by saying “He just works too hard. His training is too hard. He works very hard.”
When asked how good Floyd Mayweather is, who has proclaimed himself as the greatest fighter of all time, “Nacho” said that Mayweather is a very good fighter, but that Pacquiao would defeat him because “He is just too tough, too strong.”
The great trainer and veteran ring observer “Nacho” Beristain has zero confidence that Floyd Mayweather, as good a fighter as he is, would prevail against Manny Pacquiao.
Obviously Beristain is going to stick by his fighter, Juan Manuel Marquez (52-5-1, 38 KO’s) in his November showdown with Manny Pacquiao at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. “Nacho” said that if Marquez “does his work very good he can win his fight with Pacquiao.” Not exactly a ringing endorsement for Marquez.
In addition to training Juan Manuel Marquez, the sixty eight year old Beristain has trained many other great Mexican fighters including Daniel Zaragoza, Humberto Gonzalez, Ricardo Lopez and numerous others. Because of his stature in boxing Beristain’s opinions carry a significant amount of weight.

Boxing notes: Brandon Rios' next move

Southern California has another star fighter following Saturday night's showing by Oxnard's Brandon Rios.
The 24-year-old unbeaten world lightweight champion kept his fists flying throughout his third-round TKO triumph over Maywood's gritty Urbano Antillon at Home Depot Center, positioning himself for a jump to boxing's deepest division (junior-welterweight) and perhaps a 2013 battle against Manny Pacquiao, according to both fighters' promoter, Bob Arum.
"Everyone wants to see Brandon now," Arum said.
Rios' next bout will be his second lightweight title defense, Arum said, most likely against Australia's Michael Katsidis, who has fought hard but lost recent battles against Juan Manuel Marquez and Robert Guerrero.
Arum said if Marquez puts on a strong showing but loses to Pacquiao in November, a Rios-Marquez bout is possible in the first quarter of 2012, with the move to 140 pounds following.
-- A Katsidis bout would continue the de-icing of relations between Arum's Top Rank promotion company and Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions. The companies stopped making fights following the Pacquiao-Ricky Hatton bout in May 2009, with De La Hoya and his business partner, Richard Schaefer, being sued by Pacquiao in connection with alleged defamatory statements about the Filipino superstar possibly engaging in performance-enhancing-drug use. That lawsuit was settled last month.
Now, the first Top Rank-Golden Boy card has been set, with Golden Boy's Daniel Ponce De Leon scheduled to fight Top Rank's world featherweight champion, Yuriorkis Gamboa, Sept. 10 in Atlantic City, N.J.
There's been talk another deal is in the works, with Golden Boy's Saul "Canelo" Alvarez tabbed to fight at Staples Center Sept. 17 against Top Rank's Alfonso Gomez.
It's a fluid situation. Arum said he hasn't been contacted about Gomez, and a Staples Center official said he's still in the process of "clearing the date" for the "Canelo" world super-welterweight title bout that would be shown on HBO's pay-per-view broadcast of the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Victor Ortiz bout at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
--The manager for Coachella Valley junior-welterweight Timothy Bradley said Saturday night that he expects news to break this week about the fighter's future, which is in promotional limbo.
Bradley promoter Gary Shaw is seeking to collect money he would have gathered if Bradley had fought Amir Khan July 23 in Las Vegas. Bradley declined to accept the bout.
There's a possibility another promoter -- such as Arum -- will front a settlement figure for Bradley to pay off Shaw, allowing Bradley to defend his World Boxing Council belt on the Pacquiao-Marquez card in November.
Arum declined to discuss the matter. Bradley manager Cameron Dunkin said he's received a letter from the WBC asking what Bradley's intentions are.
Bradley has been discussed as Pacquiao's next opponent if another effort to stage a Pacquiao-Mayweather bout fails.

Five possible opponents for Saul Alvarez

"The kid has a rock star following. It's unbelievable. When all the little girls were following Alvarez and I was left behind, I was getting trampled. It was like, wow this kid is the next guy," said Oscar De La Hoya. Saul "Canelo" Alvarez is a superstar at 20 years old . He looks more like Brian Scalabrine than Julio Cesar Chavez. Yet, Alvarez fights with a ferocious style that boxing fans love. He is ready for his next fight. Therefore, who are five possible opponents for Alvarez?

Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.

There have been talks about a fight between Mexican star Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Alvarez. It would be an all-Mexican mega-fight. The winner of the fight would forever remain a boxing legend in Mexico. "Freddie wants that fight, we're ready. We just need a willingness on Canelo's part to do it. We're ready to do that fight. But, I don't think they want the fight," said Top Rank's CEO and promoter Bob Arum.

However, Chavez is already scheduled to fight Peter Manfredo Jr. on November 19th and he might have a tuneup fight in September. He would not be available to fight Canelo until 2012. There is also a significant weight difference between them. Alvarez is a junior middleweight and Chavez is a middleweight that weighed 180 pounds in his last boxing match.

Paul Williams

There has been discussion of Alvarez fighting the winner of the boxing match between Paul Williams and Erislandy Lara. "Yeah, there's a good possibility. Obviously we look at everything. Every offer and every aspect of it. But, we will have to see what happens in this fight," said Golden Boy's Promotions matchmaker Eric Gomez.

Alvarez is likely to return on September 17th the weekend of Mexican Independence Day. The date of the fight lowers chances of a boxing match against Williams since the date is so close to his last fight. He rebounded after his loss against Martinez by winning a controversial decision against Lara. Equally important, Williams showed enough flaws in his last two boxing matches that he will no longer be avoided by elite boxers.

Vanes Martirosyan

Vanes Martirosyan is interested in fighting Alvarez. "I hear Canelo wants to fight in September. I say let's do it. We can sell out staples. How often do you get two undefeated fighters in the ring together. My style and Canelo's style guarantees a great fight for the fans," said Martirosyan.

Golden Boy Promotions has discussed a fight against Martirosyan. He is Alvarez's next mandatory opponent. The fight probably will not happen in September. However, it will eventually happen since he is a mandatory challenger.

Alfonso Gomez

Alfonso Gomez has mentioned that he wants to fight Alvarez. His trainer Edison Reynoso has discussed that he would prefer for him to fight Gomez instead of Mayorga. Reynoso does not like how he has lost almost every major fight that he has been in. Yet, Mayorga still has a better resume than Gomez.

Gomez is an experienced fighter that has a following in Los Angeles which is a possible location for the boxing match. It would be a fight between two Mexican warriors on Mexican Independence Day. On the other hand, Gomez is promoted by Top Rank which could be an obstacle to getting the fight made. There is also a weight difference because Gomez is a welterweight.

Ricardo Mayorga

Alvarez's trainer Reynoso and Golden Boy Promoter Richard Schaefer have both mentioned Mayorga as a possible opponent. But, Schaefer is worried that Ricardo Mayorga and his Promoter Don King might price themselves out of the fight. King is still a hard negotiator.

Mayorga would provide a exciting fight. It is also fight that Alvarez could win. Likewise, it would be impressive if he could beat Mayorga in a more dominant fashion than Cotto. It could lead to bigger fights for Alvarez. It could help prove that he is not too young to fight the best junior middleweights in the world.

Works Cited

7 July 2011 http://espn.go.com/

7 July 2011 http://www.boxingscene.com/

Billy Costello, ex-WBC champ, dies of cancer at 55

KINGSTON, N.Y. (AP) — Former World Boxing Council light welterweight champion Billy Costello, winner of his first 30 professional fights, has died of lung cancer. He was 55.
Costello died Wednesday at a hospital in his hometown, Kingston, N.Y., longtime friend Joe LaLima said Thursday.
Costello was 40-2 over a 20-year career that began in 1979. He won the WBC light welterweight championship in 1984 with a 10th-round technical knockout of Bruce Curry, then defended the title three times over the next year.
Costello lost the title to "Lightning" Lonnie Smith in an eighth-round technical knockout in 1985. His only other loss as a pro came to Alexis Arguello in 1986.
After retiring from fighting, he worked in building and road construction, as a boxing judge and with young people in his hometown.
LaLima said Costello could afford to live anywhere after his career, but stayed in Kingston.
"He chose to buy a home in his neighborhood, where he was needed to help kids stay straight," said LaLima, a friend of Costello's father who had known the fighter since he was a child.
Costello spent recent years helping run the city Police Athletic League boxing club, which sometimes hosts bouts in a neighborhood gym named for him.
LaLima said a pedestal and plaque are already in place and the money has been raised to put a 6-foot-tall statue of Costello at one of the main streets leading into the city.
There was no immediate information on funeral arrangements.

Klitschko wants to make Haye a 'better person'

HAMBURG, Germany (AP) — Wladimir Klitschko believes he is the man to deliver the therapeutic defeat he thinks David Haye needs to become a "better person" after their highly anticipated heavyweight fight on Saturday.
The fighters have been swapping threats that perhaps go beyond the often outrageous buildups to fights — both have predicted sending the other to hospital after the bout in Hamburg's soccer stadium.
Haye's antics seem to have irritated Klitschko, who says Haye needs a reality check and therapy for his big mouth.
"My name is Dr. Klitschko. I am a therapist and on July 2 I am going to give you treatment. It is going to be reality rehab. I will knock you out into reality, which will be good for your life.
"You will be a better person and have better manners," Klitschko told Haye, who was sitting next to him at a news conference on Monday.
The 35-year-old Klitschko, the IBF, WBO and IBO champion who has a 55-3 record with 49 KOs, has a doctorate degree in sports science.
Haye, the 30-year-old WBA champion, appeared unimpressed, neither by Klitschko's academic nor the boxing record.
"This is going to be the most brutal execution of a boxer that you've seen for many, many years," Haye predicted. "I'm going to go out there and absolutely destroy him, really quickly."
The fight has been in the making for more than two years and Haye has used the time to repeatedly mock Wladimir and his older brother Vitali, the WBC champion.
He has worn a T-shirt depicting the image of himself holding the severed heads of the Klitschko brothers. Wladimir has promised to make him eat it after the fight.
Haye has introduced a game app for smart phones called "David Haye's Knockout," with users playing as Haye aims to knock the head off a giant eastern European.
Klitschko said he respects Haye as a fighter but not as a person.
"You have a certain attitude that is not so good for your life inside and outside the ring," the Ukrainian said.
Haye, a former cruiserweight fighter who has a 25-1 record, with 23 KOs, has called both Klitschko brothers "frauds," who only fight "little fat puddings who turn up for a pay check."
Klitschko acknowledged that Haye looked superbly fit and confident ahead of the fight.
"I am going to get challenged in the ring," Klitschko said.
But he had no doubt that he would be the winner, promising to punish Haye for 12 rounds before knocking him out.

Mayweather returns to ring, controversy follows

NEW YORK (AP) — Floyd Mayweather Jr. says he never accused rival fighter Manny Pacquiao of taking steroids and that he's still open to fighting the Filipino icon.
Mayweather made the comments during a stop in New York on Tuesday to promote his Sept. 17 fight against welterweight champion Victor Ortiz. The fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas will be the first for Mayweather in a year and a half.
Most of the news he's made between fights has been outside the ring.
Mayweather is being sued in federal court for defamation after allegedly accusing Pacquiao of using performance-enhancing drugs. He also faces felony charges stemming from a domestic argument, and misdemeanor harassment and battery charges, among other things, in separate cases.

Klitschko beats Haye by unanimous decision

HAMBURG, Germany (AP) — Wladimir Klitschko wanted to punish David Haye for all the trash talking he did leading up to their title fight. He settled for merely making Haye another statistic in his dominating heavyweight run.
Matched up against an opponent who didn't fight nearly as well as he talked, Klitschko dominated from the opening bell Saturday night on his way to a lopsided decision win in a fight that did not live up to its advance hype.
"He was scared to fight me," Klitschko said. "I was expecting more of a challenge in the ring, but he was super defensive."
The win was the 14th straight for Klitschko and improved his record to 17-2 in title fights. More importantly, he captured Haye's version of the heavyweight title, giving he and his brother, Vitali, all the major heavyweight title belts.
The two have long promised their mother they would never fight each other, but Vitali was in Wladimir's corner and ready to celebrate with him after the win in a rain-soaked soccer stadium in Hamburg.
"We're celebrating with my brother that we've collected all the belts in the heavyweight division," Klitschko said. "It wasn't as spectacular as I expected, but I was trying."
Haye had been expected to give Klitschko one of his most difficult fights, but he fought sparingly, seemingly afraid to take punches to the head as part of the cost of getting inside against his larger opponent. Haye blamed a broken toe suffered three weeks before the fight, taking off his shoe in the ring afterward to show it off.
"I couldn't give everything I needed to, it was really frustrating," Haye said in the ring. "I had to knock him out and unfortunately I couldn't do it."
Klitschko was never able to really knock Haye down, though the Englishman was down quite often. Haye went to the canvas repeatedly on slips and flops, and finally referee Genaro Rodriguez had enough of it and gave Haye a count when he went down in the 11th round.
Haye won only one round on one ringside judge's scorecards, though that didn't stop him from raising his hand in victory when the bell rang to end the 12th round.
All three judges gave it to Klitschko by large margins, scoring the 12-round showdown 117-109, 118-108 and 116-110.
Haye, who stirred most of the hype with often crass trash-talking, had vowed to leave Klitschko quivering on the canvas. But he never gave himself an opportunity for a knockout by spending much of the fight on the outside.
He said he could not push off on his fight foot to get to Klitschko because of the injury, though he conceded that he was facing a big, strong opponent who gave him fits. The 6-foot-6 Klitschko had a 3-inch height advantage and weighed in at 242 pounds to 213 for the 30-year-old Haye.
"It was subpar, nowhere near as good as I would have liked," Haye said. "He fought the perfect game plan for someone with my style."
Haye, a former cruiserweight champion who had held the WBA heavyweight title, had campaigned for two years for a fight against one of the Klitschko brothers and his popularity in Britain allowed him to gain a 50/50 split of the purse. But his constant trash talking clearly irritated Klitschko.
That didn't happen, either, in a fight that didn't get good until the final round, when Haye landed a right hand to the head and Klitschko came back to land a series of jabs and rights to the head of Haye.
For most of the fight, Klitschko stayed behind his feared left jab. He landed a right on Haye's chin in the fifth but Haye recovered nicely, bouncing off the ropes to stay on his feet. Still, he seemed — like Haye — to not want to take any unnecessary chances in the ring.
"I wished I could knock him out impressively," Klitschko said. "But I had to be smart enough to not let him have a chance."
The 35-year-old Ukrainian is now 56-3, with 49 KOs, while the Haye is 25-2, 23 KOs. The Briton's only previous loss was in 2004, when he was knocked out by countryman Carl Thompson in a cruiserweight fight.
Klitschko also hasn't lost in seven years and, together with his brother, dominates the heavyweight division.
"He's big, strong and very effective at what he does," Haye said.