Police want to quiz Haye as Chisora faces charge
GERMAN police were still searching for David Haye last night after releasing his British heavyweight rival Dereck Chisora without charge, following their wild and ugly brawl at a press conference in Munich late on Saturday.
Police want to question Haye about the incident but were unable to find him at his hotel or at the airport before his scheduled flight. One theory was that he fled to London immediately after the incident.
Chisora was arrested before his return journey and questioned for seven hours about the melee during the media conference that followed his WBC title defeat to Vitali Klitschko on Saturday evening.
He still faces a possible charge of assault although other charges, of causing grievous bodily harm and making a threat, were dropped following the police’s failure to obtain Haye’s version of events.
“We don’t know where he is,” a spokesman for Munich police said of Haye last night. “We have to hear both sides of the story. It’s not a charge against David Haye. Maybe he has gone home, yes. Then we would talk to our colleagues in Britain.”
Chisora, 28, repeatedly shouted “I’m going to shoot you” at Haye and accused the former WBA champion of “glassing” him following the brawl, which also left Haye’s manager Adam Booth with a gash on the head.
Don Charles, Chisora’s trainer, also became embroiled, while Haye and Chisora variously brandished bottles and a camera tripod.
Both London-based fighters can expect punishment from the British Boxing Board of Control, amid calls for them to be banned for life. A shorter suspension and heavy fine look more likely after both men are summoned to disciplinary hearings.
If they do fight again it could well be against each other, with the apparently unscripted fracas only heightening the simmering enmity between the pair. Haye, 31, gave up his licence last year following defeat to Klitschko’s brother Wladimir, the WBA, IBF and WBO champion, in July but has been keen to fight Vitali. Chisora’s promoter Frank Warren has suggested Haye and his man meet for the right to fight Vitali.
Warren called Chisora and Haye “total idiots” and described their altercation as “an embarrassment to British boxing”. He added that he believed Chisora had not thrown the first punch and questioned why Haye, who had been commentating on the fight, attended the press conference.
HEAVYWEIGHT HULLABALOO | BRITISH RIVALS BRAWL AT PRESS CONFERENCE
Chisora, fresh from a title defeat to Vitali Klitschko, is restrained as he wields a bottle during the melee at the post-fight conference. Haye, who had been arguing with Chisora from the back of the room, also had a bottle
At one stage Haye reached for a nearby camera tripod to use as a makeshift weapon. Chisora later repeatedly shouted across the room that he would “shoot” Haye. Both are facing bans and fines from British boxing chiefs
Haye’s trainer Adam Booth (above right) was left with a gashed head, although there were suggestions he may have been hit with the tripod by Haye accidentally. Booth thought he had been “glassed”, as did Chisora (above left), who accused Haye