If anyone needs a reminder on what heavyweight boxer David Haye’s recent controversial comments are really about, check out his Twitter message from earlier today. Haye, of course, on Wednesday said that his upcoming bout with Audley Harrison will be as “one-sided as a gang rape.” Today, with hostile women’s groups closing in and public sentiment almost universally against him, Haye backed down somewhat, without actually apologizing. As you can see to the right, he at least called himself stupid. But an outright apology? Meh. Women don’t buy boxing tickets, do they?
From The Guardian UK:
Haye’s comments drew criticism from women’s groups and charities but the world champion seemed unrepentant on his Twitter page: “If I apologised for every stupid/ignorant thing i said, I wouldn’t have time for anything else during the day!” he wrote.
Yvonne Traynor, the chief executive of Rape Crisis, told Sky News: “Gang rape is a serious and violent crime against humanity leaving the survivor severely traumatised, terrified and violated.
“For Mr Haye to think that it is acceptable to make this comparison is a serious lack of judgment and intelligence and shows that he neither knows what he is talking about nor who is going to be affected by this tasteless comment.”
Famous figures throughout history have had Hayes’ form of social Tourette’s — Gen. George Patton; Vice President Dick Cheney; Rex Ryan — but David Haye has a long way to go before moving the needle like any of those men. What he says outside of the ring is not one one-hundredth as important as what he does within it.
This may not include fighting Harrison, whom many consider a straw man; merely fodder for Haye’s hype machine. Current English heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, in fact, calls the fight “a farce.”
But every story needs a bad guy, doesn’t it? Eventually Haye is going to have to fight someone good, and we’ll all enjoy seeing him get his block knocked off.
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No apology from David Haye after ‘gang rape’ comment [The Guardian]
