Haye pulls Hitler stunt on eve of Klitschko fight

David Haye's ability to wind up his opponents knows no bounds and on the eve of his showdown with Wladimir Klitschko the British heavyweight boxer has landed another, very low, blow by invoking the spirit of Basil Fawlty and mentioning the war.

His latest stunt came in the form of a Tweet that linked to a scene from German film Downfall, which chronicles the last days of Hitler. In the clip the subtitles had been reworded to show the Fuhrer and his inner circle fretting not about the advancing allied armies, but the speed and power of Haye's punching.

As far as the joke goes it is hardly original. Reworking scenes from Downfall to address the issues of the day is one of the internet's longest running jokes and in 2009 YouTube was moved  to try and ban all parodies of the film.

The parody may not have been made by Haye himself, but bringing Hitler into proceedings will not endear the brash Englishman to the German crowd or his opponent, who is actually Ukranian but has fought in Germany throughout his career.

Earlier in the build-up to the fight Haye launched an iPhone game in which the aim was to decapitate a large Eastern European boxer. He has previously paraded around in a t-shirt depicting him holding the severed heads of Wladimir and his brother Vitali.

Never one to miss out on a marketing opportunity Haye will try and cash in on his supporters' nationalist tendencies by entering the ring modelling England's new away football top.

So far, Haye's opponent has tried to maintain his dignity in the face of the provokation, but he was moved to describe his opponent as "disgraceful and disrespectful" earlier this week. His brother Vitali weighed in as well, announcing that he was jealous of his brother, as he would be the one to end Haye's career.

"I'm very upset because my brother took David Haye away from me. I wanted to fight him," said Vitali.

One of Haye's final training sessions before the fight took place in public and featured his trainer, Adam Booth, wearing platform heels and an arm extension to mimic the size and reach of 6ft 6in Klitschko.

And although Klitschko is likely to weigh in for Saturday night's fight at well over 17st, there is talk that Haye, who is three inches shorter than the Ukranian and is concentrating on his speed and mobility, will be under 15st. ·