Williams: He [David Haye] Could Beat Any Heavyweight Without a Warm-up”

By Dan Ambrose: In an interview with Setanta Sports, heavyweight Danny Williams was very complimentary of British heavyweight David Haye, going so far as to say that he has tremendous speed and power. He has absolutely everything. He could beat any heavyweight without a warm-up.” At the same time, Williams also wasn’t impressed with challenger Tony Thompson’s performance against IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, calling it “absolutely sickening” and “disgusting.” Apparently, Williams felt that Thompson didn’t give it his all in the fight, and held back rather than trying to take the fight to Klitschko.

Thompson, 36, did make numerous efforts to engage Wladimir earlier in the fight, but was met with a lot of hard right hands whenever he would come in close. Wladimir made it even tougher for Thompson by clinching him continuously, thus preventing him from getting off more than one or two shots at a time. With as little power as Thompson had, he clearly needed much more than a couple of shots in a row if he intended on beating a fighter as good as Wladimir.

Williams feels that Haye has the talent to rejuvenate the heavyweight division, which has been going through a stale period since the retirement of Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson in the past four years. Wladimir Klitschko and his brother, Vitali, were at first thought to be the saviors of the division. However, Vitali retired in 2005 after suffering a slew of injuries to both his back and knee, and Wladimir, with an often safety first fighting style, has failed to fight excite boxing fans since winning the IBF heavyweight title in 2006 with a knockout over Chris Byrd. Haye, as much hype as he’s getting in the press, is still an unknown fighter. He talks well, seems to be an excellent self promoter, but up to this point he hasn’t beaten away of note to warrant all the press he’s been getting as of late.

While fighting as a cruiserweight, Haye fought mostly smaller, limited fighters like Jean Marc Mormeck, Enzo Maccarinelli and Glen Kelly, and none of them would likely make it more than couple of rounds, if that, with Wladimir Klitschko. So, Haye has done well against the lower quality talent in the cruiserweight division, but that doesn’t really say much at this point. Even then, Haye was beaten by an old Carl Thompson, who merely stayed in their until Haye tired himself out in the 5th round, then took him out with a few lumbering right hands to the head. Thompson’s a good puncher, but anywhere near the same class as Wladimir.

If Haye could prove himself as being able to take a heavy shot without going down, like he did against Thompson and Mormeck, then maybe he might be good enough to someday beat a fighter with the power and size of a Wladimir. But, in the absence of that, I don’t see him being able to beat Wladimir, nor any of the other big heavyweights in the division like Samuel Peter, Nikolay Valuev, Alexander Dimitrenko or Vitali Klitschko.

I think Vitali, even with four years away from boxing, would completely decimate a fighter like Haye. Not only would Vitali be able to take Haye’s shots without any problem, but he’s have something answer back with again and again, and we’d likely see another Danny Williams vs. Vitali Klitschko scenario, in which Haye is knocked down multiple times en route to being stopped.

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Posted July 17th, 2008 l 568 Views

Tags: David Haye, Danny Williams

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Comments

Nill Tom:

What a joke. Folks actually think David Haye would stand a chance in the HW division. This guy gets buzzed by relative midgets like Thompson and Mormeck - what the heck is a Peter or Klitschko gonna do to him??? It’s ridiculous that folks are basing their opinions on what Haye did to Enzo Macc and shows just how deluded Brit fanboys have become in promoting their man.

posted September 12th, 2008 at 2:14 pm

suck eggs:

Any boxing fan or sports writter that states that Hayes fights against Mormeck, Macaranelli are not impressive whilst trying to state that Klitshko is far more superior is a muppet.

Klitschko has fought nothing but overweight Cruiserweights and looked bad doing it. the bloke here fought last week is the biggest opponent he’s had but the guy had the speed of a morris minor and the power of a 56k modem.
He has never fought anyone with the boxing ability of Haye or with the hand speed or raw power of Haye and Haye although 3 inches shorter has the same reach so please… if you haven’t seen Haye fight more than once don’t start telling people that Haye would get smashed to bits becasue you are way off the mark.

Having seen all of Hayes fights and many of Wlads i personally would put £100 on Haye if the 2 were to meet… too quick, too accurate and too powerful.

posted July 21st, 2008 at 11:42 am

ZKO:

The fact that people are writing about David Haye as a legitimate challenger to Vlad without Haye proving himself/dominating within the heavyweight division proves how much Vlad has cleaned up the heavyweight division. Vlad’s the white Larry Holmes.

posted July 19th, 2008 at 10:07 am

Adam:

Dan Ambrose thank you.Finally a writer that makes some sense.David Haye would get his head bashed in if he was to fight klitschko.I don’t think it would even be a close match.Maybe 3 or 4 rounds.You put a putts like Haye in their with a man like klitschko and he’s gonna get seriously hurt.It’s a boy vs a man.David who.Nobody even heard of haye before he confronted klitschko at a CHARITY EVENT.There’s a real class act for you.All these wimps that want klitscho to fight David Haye aren’t very smart.Haye comes out with a big mouth and all of a sudden he’s a breath of fresh air.Klitschko would knock Haye out with 1 of his jabs lmfao.Get real guys.And i hope you like watching klitschko fight because he ain’t going nowhere for about 5 more years.

posted July 18th, 2008 at 11:07 pm

chris:

i cant believe that someone has popped out of somewhere and claimed mormeck was a smaller, limited fighter, he was reigning champ and just like ppl defending wlad for the calibre of fighters he s defeated, haye had to go thru them to get the titles, and he did so, and in paris no less.!

haye is giving up at least 3 plus inches to wlad but with his speed and undoubted power, not to mention both can get tagged and go wobbly, i think this would be a great contest in say 18 months (like lewis says) so haye can fully bulk up, gain invaluable experience against proper hw s and learn the different strategies etc. However, mark my words, haye struggled to remain in the weight constrictions for cw so dont think this is as big a step up as the weight classifications would have u believe, haye can bulk quickly, i only fear for his chin when in with the big boys, he does like to hang his left very low to draw cw s in, but hw will be v different.

he does however, have more impetus and skill than much of what i have seen tbh in the heavies in past couple yrs - we should embrace the fresh air haye has introduced. i like the fact he s refuffled a few feathers, so lets be patient and wait for the handbags to fly. come on hayemaker

posted July 18th, 2008 at 9:23 pm

Boxing Professor:

David is good but he needs 4 more top Heavyweight to fight before he can get a Title fight. David Haye should fight James Toney, Ruslan Chagev, Nikolay Valuev and Samual Peters before a Title shoot with Wladimir.

posted July 18th, 2008 at 8:48 am