AFTER A WEEK of media speculation, inflammatory tweeting and a transcontinental manhunt, former WBA heavyweight champ David Haye has addressed the controversy surrounding his brawl with Dereck Chisora at the Munich press conference following the latter’s defeat to Vitali Klitschko.

Haye, whose heckling of Chisora, Klitschko and promoter Bernd Boente sparked the confrontation, pledged to cooperate with German authorities, only to later abscond to Las Vegas.

He later claimed to have been in fear of his life.

Speaking on the Sunday Night Show, Haye insisted he struck Chisora in self-defence.

“Look at all the camera angles. I had no other option. I could have stood there with my hands by my side and got punched, kicked or spat at. The guy has said on national television he is going to beat me up and break my jaw. Why wouldn’t I defend myself?”

Footage of the incident, he suggested, served only to exaggerate the violence of his actions.

“I can understand how that looks but I was there as part of the media. It wasn’t a beer, either – it was a bottle of lemonade,” he said.”It was a glass bottle but I didn’t hit him with that bottle – I hit him with my fist.”

A police investigation of the altercation is currently ongoing.

(YouTube credit: MrKarlnufc)

Read more on this story from the Telegraph

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