British boxer compares upcoming fight to rape; women's groups unamused

They call him The Unknown Champion, even though British boxer David Haye is the current WBA World Heavyweight title holder and before that unified the cruiserweight division with WBA, WBC, WBO and The Ring magazine crowns. So, on the announcement Tuesday of his November fight in Manchester with Audley Harrison, Haye decided to help people to get to know him better. When asked how he thought he’d do against Harrison, Haye replied that the fight would be “as one-sided as a gang rape.” Wait, what? (Bow tie spins). I can see where this career is going.
Mike Tyson. Mike Tyson please pick up the white courtesy phone.

From the London Daily Mail:

Haye went on to boast ‘he would ‘violate’ Harrison when the pair fought. He told the London press conference: ‘ I’m going to violate him so badly on such a big public platform that he’ll have nowhere else to go but back to Los Angeles. I’m going to embarrass him.’

Women’s groups and rape victims have reacted furiously to the comments.

Viv Hayes, of the Women’s Resource Centre, said: ‘I’m horrified that anybody could say something which trvialises such an extremely serious crime.

‘We know only too well the effects of rape and gang rape on women and their families.

‘I really would like David Haye to find out some actual information about rape and then perhaps make a donation to one of the many struggling rape crisis centres in the UK.’

Louise Harman, 41, who was beaten and left for dead after being raped near her home in Hull city centre in 2007, said she was disgusted by Haye’s remarks.

‘I don’t know how he can compare rape with boxing. I think it is insensitive and it makes me feel very angry. They have chosen to go in for a boxing match and it is between two strong men, whereas rape victims don’t stick themselves in a ring and say, “Do that to me.” ‘

You may recall in 2009 when Haye posed with the wax severed head of heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko for a magazine photo-shoot. Or when he said that same year of Nikolay Valuev, “He is the ugliest thing I have ever seen. I have watched Lord of the Rings and films with strange looking people, but for a human being to look like he does is pretty shocking.”
If it’s the bad-boy image he’s cultivating, mission accomplished. But be reminded that what goes up must come down. Or, as seen in The Hangover, it’s only a matter of time before you become obsessed with Phil Collins and someone steals your tiger.
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Outrage as heavyweight world champion David Haye compares ‘one-sided’ fight against Audley Harrison to ‘gang rape’ [London Daily Mail]