Is David Haye a True Heavyweight?

By Nate Anderson: The more and more I see of David Haye (21-1, 20 KOs), I think he’s not really cut out to be a heavyweight. His 6’2″ frame seems still far too smallish to achieve what he’s trying to accomplish by moving up from the cruiserweight limit of 200 lbs. Although there are some decent smaller heavyweights in the division like Monte Barrett, Lamon Brewster and Brian Minto, Haye doesn’t appear to even as big as those fighters. Recently I saw him on Setanta Sports with Steve Bunce and Haye looked a little larger than he had while fighting as a cruiserweight, but mostly he just appeared plain fat, with a noticeable gut on him.

With three months to go before his fight on the Vitali Klitschko vs. Samuel Peter undercard on October 18th, he still has time to put on some size, but I don’t see how it will make him anything other than a small heavyweight. To be sure, it’s difficult to put on 30-40 lbs of muscle in a short time like Haye is trying to accomplish, and probably even harder to be able to use the weight effectively that is put on in a hurry. In Haye’s case, he needs to gain a lot of weight before he’s able to compete with the top heavyweights, and if he’s at all serious about taking on a top contender in his next fight, he’s probably making a fatal mistake in doing so. He’s had big problems when facing opponents that can take his shots, as evidenced in his fight with Giacobbe Fragomeni in November 2006.

Haye, after a fast start in which he landed a lot of heavy shots to the head of Giacobbe, he soon after tired out by the 6th round and found himself in a war, getting hit with hard shots. Luckily for Haye, he was facing a limited cruiserweight with only average power and ability. If, however, Haye had been facing a top heavyweight that could stand up to his power shot, he’d have been taken out in short order. Haye punches well, but he’s too small to stand up to the bigger heavyweights and his chin is one of the worst I’ve seen in a top fighter. Even against a lesser fighter than Wladimir Klitschko or Samuel Peter, I feel that Haye would be in for almost as much trouble as he would against them. Former heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman has been mentioned recently as a potential opponent for Haye.

I think that’s a really bad idea for Haye, because Rahman can take a good shot, at least most of the time, and if he fires back at Haye with anything big, I seriously doubt Haye will be able to take the shots. Perhaps Haye might have gotten a feeling of false confidence after seeing how James Toney was able to defeat Rahman a week ago in a 3rd round TKO. However, the fight was stopped after a head butt that occurred in the 3rd round, which prevented Rahman from ever getting warmed up with his own big shots.

Believe me, if that had been Haye in there with Rahman, we’d have seen him going down by the 3rd or 4th round after Rahman landed a couple of big right hands. If Haye wants to fight as a heavyweight, he needs to start from with some really light hitting fighters, ones without a dangerous punch that can dent his fragile chin.

Once he works his way up from a C level heavyweight, maybe then he might be able to step in with a top fighter, but I still have grave doubts about whether he’ll ever succeed at what he’s trying to accomplish. He can forget completely about fighting a super heavyweight like Wladimir Klitschko or his brother Vitali, as they would take him out in a round or two with the first big shot that lands.

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