Mind games are usually a large part of the build-up to a big bout, but David Haye seems as concerned with wanting to prove a point to Frank Warren, the promoter, as winning his world cruiserweight title unification contest against Enzo Maccarinelli tomorrow night.

Haye failed to show up for yesterday's head-to-head press conference with Maccarinelli at the O2 Arena in southeast London, where the bout will be held, claiming that the change in start time from 2pm to 12.30pm interrupted his sleep. He ended up holding his own impromptu meeting with the media outside the arena's box office after the press conference was over.

“I went to the gym at 2am, the same time I am fighting, trained for about two hours, had some breakfast and was in bed at about 6.30am,” Haye said. “We agreed last week that the press conference was at 2pm, but for some mysterious reason it got pushed even earlier. But I was expecting these sort of tactics, nobody's interrupting my sleep and that's all that matters.”

Haye is also disputing whether today's weigh-in will be at 4pm, as he wants, or 7pm, as Warren, who is also Maccarinelli's manager, wants. Expect Haye to lose that one, too.

The person who seemed least concerned about all the goings-on is Maccarinelli, as laid-back a character as one could meet. Maccarinelli, the WBO champion, had made his way from his home in Swansea to London for the second day in a row for lunchtime media commitments. Haye lives just a few miles from the venue.

Despite being a world champion, this is Maccarinelli's breakthrough bout. So often in the shadow of Joe Calzaghe, his friend and training partner, the 27-year-old finds himself on the verge of huge things. Calzaghe has been Maccarinelli's chief sparring partner, Maccarinelli having served in the same role for his friend ahead of Calzaghe's world super-middleweight title victory over Mikkel Kessler last year.

“I've been doing a lot of sparring with Joe because we know Haye is fast,” Maccarinelli, who is trained by Calzaghe's father, Enzo, said. “I've been sparring with heavyweights in the past and I crack them in one or two rounds and that's the end of my sparring. But in the gym we've got lots of good boxers - they're all different but they're all fast, so I'm constantly having to adapt. I throw a lazy jab, against a heavyweight I get away with it, against these boys I get hit four or five times.”

He is expecting the best of Haye when they meet in the ring in the early hours of Sunday. “Regardless of what he says about how he can knock me out in a round and I'm not in his class, if he hasn't trained properly, he's a fool,” Maccarinelli said. “I could go into the old spiel of ‘I'm fitter than ever, I'm stronger than ever', but all I need to say is ‘I'm fit, I'm excited and I'm ready'.

“I know it's bigger than anything before, I've seen mine and David's faces on billboards. I'm in this sport for the glory, I want to be the best, I want to fight the best. David is the man who beat the man, so I've got to go to him to get what I want. I probably took half the money he's having, but there was no argument with me. This is my big chance.”

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