Haye Predicts Knockout Over Maccarinelli

In today’s boxing news around the horn, WBC/WBA cruiserweight champ David Haye (20-1, 19KOs) hopes to be able to repeat former heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis’ knockout performance against over-matched Michael Grant in 2000, in which Lewis scored a sweet 2nd round KO. Haye, 27, hopes that he can stop Maccarinelli in similar fashion, quickly taking him out with big right hands. Apparently, Haye feels that Maccarinelli isn’t a legitimate fighter, but rather one that has been out together by his promoter.

“Maccarinelli is a manufactured fighter. He has fought some good names, like Wayne Braithwaite and Marcelo Dominguez, but if you look a little deeper they were on their way out and called up at short notice. The guys I’ve fought have always had four or five weeks notice so I’ve beaten them when they were 100 per cent in shape.”

Through all this, Maccarinelli, the World Boxing Organization (WBO), has remained strangely reserved in comparison, staying much more conservative in his predictions for victory. However, Maccarinelli it seems may have the better fight strategy going into, as he’s not going to rush out foolishly like Haye will, trying to score a quick knockout. If Maccarinelli can stay patient, and wait out Haye’s opening artillery, he has a good chance at stopping Haye by mid point in the fight. It’s not a good chance, mind you, but it’s a decent one, considering Haye’s previous stoppage loss to Carl Thompson in 2004, where Haye ran out of gas.

Even after that, Haye looked especially vulnerable to Giacobbe Fragomeni, whom he stopped in the 9th round on November 2006. Before the fight was stopped, however, Fragomeni, not a big puncher, stunned Haye on several occasions in their fight, and had his face badly cut from his punches at the end of the bout. The fight was very close at the time of the stoppage, and it showed that Haye, in spite of his big power, is vulnerable to any fighter that can stand up to his power and get him into the late rounds of the fight. If you can put hands on Haye, you’ll find that he has a weak chin, which doesn’t go together well with his world class power. It’s up to Maccarinelli to discover a way to make it that far in the fight, for if he elects to trade with Haye early on, he’ll very likely get stopped in the 1st or 2nd round, much in the same way that most of Haye’s opponents.