DERECK CHISORA BRAWLS WITH DAVID HAYE AT THE KLITSCHKO VS CHISORA POST FIGHT PRESS CONFERENCE!!!

If David Haye and Dereck Chisora thought they could contain their animosity in the space of an ugly press conference brawl in the early hours of this morning, they were disabused of the notion when German police confirmed they were taking both men in for questioning in Munich on Sunday.

Their concern centres not only on the confrontation but on Chisora's threat to shoot Haye after a five-minute brawl that provided an ugly postscript to Chisora's commendable losing effort on points against the WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko.

This is how the fight at the fight that shamed British boxing started, finished and lingered. The story is far from over.

As an otherwise routine press conference was meandering without noticeable malice, a German journalist asked a seemingly innocuous question of Klitschko's promoter, Bernd Boente.

In the light of Chisora's pre-fight slapping of Vitali and Haye's poor performance against his brother, Wladimir, last July, could he be bothered to deal with British boxers in the future?

"With the bad experience we've had with British fighters, we will now look for other countries," Boente said. "But, [unlike] David Haye, Dereck Chisora really went for it and really tried."

Boente, who earlier had tried to evict Haye from the venue while the fighter was giving a television interview at ringside, saw him at the back of the room, in a skimpy black tee-shirt on a freezing night and clearly sweating on his moment to crash the party.

As Don Charles, Chisora's trainer, was lauding his fighter as "Lionheart", Haye joined the conversation. He was ready to come out of retirement and fight Vitali, he said. He'd agreed terms before Christmas. Klitschko ignored him but the combative Boente did not. He goaded Haye about his infamous little toe, the one that inconvenienced and embarrassed him in his losing fight against Wladimir — and said he would get no fight with Vitali.

"You had an offer," Boente screamed from the podium, "you didn't accept it, now you are out. You are out! Out, out, out! You cannot talk yourself back into the fight, you have no belts. Chisora showed heart. You showed your toe."

Chisora interjected: "Me and you can now get it on in London, David. How's your toe, David? How's your toe?"

Haye said he was not interested in fighting his fellow-Londoner: "You've now lost three fights in a row," he said.

Chisora stirred and got to his feet. "OK, say that to my face," he said, as he moved away from his promoter, Frank Warren, and walked the 10 yards from the podium towards Haye, who moved back a pace or two to give himself room for what was obviously going to escalate into a physical confrontation.

There was no turning back for either man once Chisora made that move.

Haye put down a bottle he had been drinking from, stood his ground, eyes blazing, and slammed a right hook into Chisora's jaw. Chisora, in a rage, did not go down but was disorientated and then shunted about in the melee as his team joined the fray. Haye grabbed a camera tripod and swung it around him, accidentally catching his own trainer, Adam Booth, who staggered away holding a gash to his head, with blood streaming down his face.

Haye then laid into another member of Chisora's team, as witnesses skipped this way and that to avoid getting caught up in the fight. Chisora, unable to engage Haye one-to-one because of the shifting bodies around them, started screaming as the woefully inept security finally closed in, "He glassed me! He glassed me! I'll shoot him, I'll shoot him."

There was no visible evidence of a cut on Chisora, but he was beyond consoling or advice. As his team dragged him in one direction, Haye left by another door, yelling behind him, "That's four in a row now!"

As Haye headed into the night, police arrived and took Chisora aside in a corner of the room to question him about his threats.

The post-fight fight lasted maybe five minutes, long enough for photographers and cameramen to catch glimpses of the ugly scenes. The evidence is there for both men to face, and the British Boxing Board of Control, as well as the World Boxing Council, who sanctioned the title fight, will come down hard on both men.

They will be heavily fined and they risk having their licences suspended.

It is not known yet whether police will take any action against Chisora.

But, if commercial imperatives over-ride good taste — as they often do in professional boxing — they will fight in the ring some time this summer.

Boente later made it clear he will not give Haye a Klitschko fight until he has gone through Chisora.

The perma-tanned, white-haired German, a promoter to the tips of his shiny shoes and one of the toughest in the business, said, "The brawl tonight calls for a box-off between Haye and Chisora, and the winner fights one of the Klitschkos. [Haye and Chisora] would make a lot of money in the UK."

Vitali, meanwhile, drew plaudits for condemning the fist fight.

But he did not lose sight of the earning possibilities the controversy would generate and still wants to fight either of the British brawlers.

"Who knows," he told me, "This would be great. I tell you I have a feeling the door is still open."

For all the indignation generated around an impromptu brawl, he is right.

Courtesy of Kevin Mitchell
guardian.co.uk