The police came knocking at 4am at my hotel door hunting for Haye

Steve Bunce explains how he got caught up in the mayhem between two British boxers after title fight was overshadowed by a brawl

Monday 20 February 2012 06:00 EST
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Dereck Chisora and David Haye square up before fighting breaks out
Dereck Chisora and David Haye square up before fighting breaks out (Reuters)

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Two hours before I left for Munich last Friday, Dereck Chisora slapped Vitali Klitschko. Thirty minutes before I returned yesterday, he was detained by the German police to answer questions about a brawl involving David Haye. He was later released without charge. In between the slap and the brawl a proper fight broke out and Klitschko retained his WBC heavyweight title after a fabulous 12-round contest.

Chisora is likely to be fined by the WBC for Friday's slap. The British Boxing Board of Control will convene a meeting to discuss his role in what happened at the post-fight press conference, and the severity of the shocking scenes that played out during about 20 seconds of violence is likely to end with equally severe reprimands. The fact that so much of the incident is available online will not help either Chisora or Haye.

Haye was in Germany as part of the BoxNation broadcast team alongside me. He recently agreed to end his brief exile and a contract for a fight against Vitali is ready for the final touches from the lawyers. However, he is convinced that the older of the two boxing brothers is trying to get out of fighting him, and with that in mind Haye went to the conference for a bit of banter and abuse.

Chisora often replied to Haye's shouts and it was personal but not particularly nasty. However, Chisora eventually stood up, left the top table and walked towards Haye, holding a microphone in his hand. They came face to face, it was heavily filmed and most of what was said was heard perfectly. Chisora promised to slap Haye twice, hands were raised and voices blurred as it all went horribly wrong. Haye threw a punch, the pair fell into each other and covered about six metres as others were sucked into the centre of the violence. Don Charles, who trains Chisora, and Adam Booth, who trains Haye, became involved and found themselves entering at that point when a street fight explodes and makes it impossible to tell who is trying to stop it and who is trying to add to it. Booth and Charles were trying to get their arms on their fighters to stop it, but, as other anonymous arms and legs were added to the vicious mix, a tripod crashed across Booth's brow and the blood flowed. Charles was also detained by the German police at the airport yesterday.

It ended as suddenly as it had started and Haye left the building to jump in a people carrier and vanish into the night, which was the one sensible act by either of the two boxers all evening. Booth's gash was superficial and he was soon able to join Haye in a trip to the airport, where they were booked onto the first flight out of Munich at seven in the morning.

Meanwhile, the German police knocked on my hotel door at just after four in the morning, to ask me if I knew where Haye and Booth had gone, which was a bit awkward. They left when they realised that the pair were not hiding in my shower.

Haye and Booth managed to get their plane without any hassle but it is thought Haye will have to answer some questions at some point in the very near future – as will Chisora.

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