Wladimir Klitschko doesn't lack for motivation in fight against Haye

We have gone eight long, Eddie Chambers- and Hasim Rahman-filled years since the last meaningful heavyweight fight. That was 2003, when Lennox Lewis and Vitali Klitschko squared off in a rock-'em, sock-'em brawl in Los Angeles that abruptly ended when the ringside doctor declared the Ukrainian challenger couldn't continue because of a cut above his left eye so deep you could almost see bone.

Wladimir Klitschko was there that night, a 27-year-old former titleholder support his brother from his corner. Back then, the heavyweight division still had a few names. Then Lewis retired, Evander Holyfield aged and Mike Tyson became a punch line, leaving Wladimir and Vitali standing alone, two preeminent fighters in a division littered with nobodies.

Today, the division is still weak -- neither Klitschko brother has lost since 2004 -- but, finally, there is a heavyweight fight worth watching: On July 2, Wladimir will look to unify the alphabet titles against David Haye in Hamburg, Germany.

"I'm excited," Wladimir said in a telephone interview. "This is going to be a very big fight."

To prepare for the smaller, faster Haye, Klitschko has brought in several top fighters as sparring partners: Steve Cunningham, the IBF cruiserweight champion; Ola Afolabi, a former cruiserweight titleholder; and Michael Hunter, a decorated 22-year-old amateur champion. The fast hands of lighter fighters, Klitschko says, have prepared him for Haye's slick style.

Finding motivation to train hasn't been a problem. Haye has been lobbing verbal grenades at the Klitschkos for years, prompting Wladimir to go to the media and Internet outlets like YouTube to try to goad Haye into the ring. With the fight set, Haye has continued his attacks. Klitschko says he felt disrespected by Haye's refusal to shake his hand at press appearances and even be in the same room with him after the events. In addition, Haye's constant references to how he is going to behead Klitschko -- from T-shirts showing the decapitated heads of the two brothers to a Mike Tyson's Punch Out-like iPhone app the British fighter introduced where users can knock the head off an Eastern European fighter who looks conspicuously like Klitschko -- have not sat well.

"Whose parents would love to see their son's head cut off?" Klitschko said. "There are certain things that you can't do. There are certain lines that you cannot cross. All he does is bark when I'm not around. The dude is not really impressive to me when I see him in person. But he barks when he doesn't see me. He's very creative when he doesn't see me. He doesn't give me any respect whatsoever. He has had a little success and won a title. Now he's flying high. I'm going to put him back on his feet and on the ground. I'm not scaring or threatening him. It's reality."

The younger Klitschko's dislike for Haye has not affected his training. Klitschko, 35, says he and trainer Emmanuel Steward have a "perfect" game plan, with the goal of punishing the 30-year-old Haye for nine or 10 rounds before finishing him with a knockout.

"I do respect [Haye] as a boxer," Klitschko said. "He's talented and he can do certain things. But he's done. I'm glad such a bastard like David Haye exists. He definitely did something stupid with that T-shirt. He knows that it was stupid. He says now he has no regrets. He has regrets. He's not wearing it anymore."

And the game plan?

"He's going to eat my jab," Klitschko said. "Then I am going to put him down."

Discovering Dulorme

Last year, promoters Lou DiBella and Gary Shaw embarked on a scouting trip to Puerto Rico. They went to see Jose Pedraza, a flashy lightweight oozing with big-time talent. They were also tipped off to another prospect: welterweight Thomas Dulorme, who was blitzing his way through the competition at local shows.

"[Promoter] Javier Botillo told us, 'You have to see this kid, he's a f---ing animal,' " DiBella said. "He said he was the best fighter on the island. We saw him and said, 'This kid is ridiculous.' We snapped him up right away.'"

DiBella has moved Dulorme along quickly, giving him prominent placement on HBO cards headlined by Sergio Martinez and Victor Ortiz. Dulorme has responded. The 5-foot-10 welterweight dropped Guillermo Valdes in the second round in March and a month later knocked out Harrison Cuello so hard that he needed to be taken from the arena on a stretcher.

Last Friday, Dulorme (11-0) took his toughest fight to date, against former welterweight titleholder DeMarcus "Chop Chop" Corley, a gatekeeper of sorts who has been in the ring with Floyd Mayweather, Miguel Cotto and Zab Judah. Dulorme went 10 rounds for the first time in his career. He struggled to consistently throw his jab against the crafty Corley and at times displayed ragged defense. But Dulorme put the durable Corley down in the third round and won 99-90 on all three scorecards.

DiBella plans to bring Dulorme back quickly against another veteran -- "maybe not someone so long in the tooth," he said -- and believes that the Puerto Rican prospect will be ready to challenge for a title within a year.

"He's ferocious, has tremendous punching power and he can box," DiBella said. "He's one of the meanest guys I have ever seen in the ring."