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Nobody should get rich from this night of shame

The question came from a German journalist. ‘With the bad experience you have had with English fighters, would you now look to other countries, and other fighters?’ The answer from Vitali Klitschko was polite but, moments later, Dereck Chisora and David Haye may have caused him to rethink.

A foul-mouthed shouting match, followed by a bloody brawl with jagged weapons and the threat of a shooting. Wasn’t boxing supposed to lead us away from this? Bottles and glasses shattered into fragments, intended to harm. Echoes of the directionless aggression in the high street on Saturday night. Wasn’t time spent in the gym meant to be the antidote to violent disorder? Teaches you discipline, teaches you self-control, gives you self-respect. There was precious little of that in the aftermath of Chisora’s fight with Klitschko in Munich.

Fight after the fight: Adam Booth, David Haye's manager, reels as a menacing Dereck Chisora moves towards him at the Press conference

Fight after the fight: Adam Booth, David Haye's manager, reels as a menacing Dereck Chisora moves towards him at the Press conference

Boxing is back in schools in some parts of London, but for how much longer, who knows? The moment the sport separates from its noble ethos it is hard to justify as an adult pursuit, let alone one that has influence on children. And what happened in Germany was the sight of British boxing losing its mind and its moral compass, of men supposedly schooled to channel their aggression in a positive way instead resorting to the primal instincts of the thug.

Britain did not have the talent in the heavyweight division — the sons of one family in Ukraine have exposed that myth — but it was revealed once again as having the ugliest culture. Vitali Klitschko spoke after the unpaid, spouting, blood-spattered combatants had retired to the sycophantic attentions of their entourages, and, though his commentary was damning, the giant Ukrainian delivered it with a wry smile. It was as if he was observing the antics of children, or dumb animals, except a bottle to the face — as Haye’s manager Adam Booth looked to have received — is no kiddie prank. It is an outrage that could blind.

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Booth departed, but not before telling Klitschko that his manager Bernd Boente was an embarrassment to the sport, which was a bit rich from a bloke still nursing a head wound from an unlicensed, unscheduled brawl that his fighter helped cause.

The scuffle had resembled nothing more than the unfocused brutality of a pair of London street crews, the shooting threat that Chisora uttered at the end no mere bravado to those who have to mop up behind the visceral spillage of inner-city gang culture.

It was British boxing that was embarrassed on Saturday night. It looked barely house-trained beside the cultured Ukrainian champions, full of loudmouths and inferiors, causing clumsy destruction outside the ring, while struggling to throw a decent punch in it. Lennox Lewis left Vitali Klitschko needing 60 stitches; Chisora was lauded merely for remaining upright. That is how times have changed.

Lewis had his moments at Press calls, not least with Mike Tyson, but he was a great champion, with a touch of class. He has been followed into the ring by upstarts. Haye talked a wonderful game, but his final fights were travesties. Chisora’s behaviour was unforgivable. The video footage appears to show Haye throwing the first punch, but it is Chisora who has clambered from the podium to confront him. Haye picks up a camera tripod, Chisora has a bottle. Neither man should have a licence to box for a very long time.

Shameful: David Haye and Chisora square up before their degrading brawl

Shameful: David Haye and Chisora square up before their degrading brawl

We have grown used to seeing the antics around a fight as part of the selling process. Many thought Chisora a no-hoper and valued the fight accordingly. It was being shown on a fledgling boxing channel, BoxNation. There was no Sky pay-per-view. Haye’s last few title defences — the masquerade with Audley Harrison followed by the Battle of Little Toe with Wladimir Klitschko — had seen to that.

So even when Chisora slapped Vitali at the weigh-in on Friday, it was at first viewed as a stunt, until the WBC removed one sixth of his £190,000 purse. Cynically, we presume the crassest actions, like the trash talk, to be part of the sales shtick now. Spitting water into the face of Vitali’s brother Wladimir immediately prior to the fight seemed a step too far but, by the end of the night, with Haye and Chisora under police investigation, all respect for the sport had been sacrificed by the British pair.

It is easy to mock, to view it all as part of boxing’s show. Promoter Frank Warren was asked to deliver a po-faced sermon in one breath, and assess chances of a match the next, but to regard this as just another instalment in a soap opera does the sport a disservice.

There are people who love boxing for its bravery, for its challenge to body and soul, for its great men past and present and for its code, which carries a tradition of mutual respect between fighters. A code that was trampled into the floor of the Olympiahalle in Munich, as Haye and Chisora grappled like hoodlums.

Detained: German police keep a close eye on Chisora

Detained: German police keep a close eye on Chisora

There was scant evidence of such savagery in the ring. This was the standard turgid heavyweight fare, which 40-year-old Klitschko won comfortably without knocking Chisora down or even leaving much of a mark.

Considering there was cheeky offer-to-rent advertising space on the soles of the challenger’s shoes, that Chisora stayed vertical is considered a triumph of sorts. He did better than expected but, as another slice of his purse is confiscated and his licence jeopardised, at what ultimate cost?

For what cannot now be allowed to happen is this behaviour brings reward. This cannot now be played up into a lucrative British grudge match, no matter that all involved will hear the cash registers ringing and have pound signs in their bloodied eyes.

Boxing is drama, but there are limits. What example does it set if behaviour that would get a man arrested in the street makes the protagonists millionaires several times over?

The sight of two men beating each other for sport seems an anachronism in civilised society. It can only be justified if structure and self-discipline are part of the process. The moment boxing creates untrammelled violence its mission is redundant. It is now the duty of British boxing to retrieve the sport from the gutter. Nobody should get rich from this night of shame.

A disgrace: Haye and Chisora should face lengthy bans from boxing

A disgrace: Haye and Chisora should face lengthy bans from boxing

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