Schalke To Stage Haye-klitschko Fight
The stadium of German football club Schalke 04 has been named as the venue for the most-vaunted fight between British boxer David Haye and heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko.
The venue for the IBF and WBO heavyweight title bout in Gelsenkirchen holds 61,000 people and also has a retractable roof.
The fight was finally agreed after four months of protracted negotiations.
Haye, a former undisputed cruiserweight world champion from London, has only fought as a heavyweight twice before.
Haye, who knocked out veteran American heavyweight Monte Barrett in November, had been due to meet Vitali Klitschko, who, at 37, is four years Wladimir’s senior.
However Vitali opted to take on mandatory challenger Juan Carlos Gomez of Cuba instead and Wladimir, who is marginally smaller than his brother and who has been knocked out three times, had always been Haye’s preferred target.
Wladimir, who won gold at the 1996 Olympics, won his first world heavyweight title in October 2000, when he beat American Chris Byrd to claim the WBO crown.
