By Jim Slattengren: With the potential fight with Vitali Klitschko (36-2, 35 KOs) and (22-1, 21 KOs) looming ahead in 2009, as of now possibly to take place in June, in London, I thought I would chime in on this fight. Both Vitali and Haye have knocked out the vast majority of their opponents with only one of their victories not ending in knockout. Both of their knockout percentages are greater than 90%, meaning that this fight likely won’t be going to distance one way or another. However, Haye, 28, has little experience against top level heavyweights, up to now only beating Monte Barrett and Tomasz Bosnin.
Neither of those fighters are in the same class as Vitali, not even close. Haye, as many others have pointed out, was knocked down in the 5th round by a big left hand by Barrett. Though the knockdown wasn’t counted, many people like myself see it as a genuine knockdown, and one that kept Haye on the canvas for a considerable amount of time.
Haye has a lot of things going for him, specially he’s a good talker, charming and knows how to sell a fight better than any heavyweight since perhaps Muhammed Ali. Unfortunately, there’s little behind him that suggests a true quality fighter.
Indeed, he’s more of a poser than the real thing, as far as I’m concerned. With only two heavyweight fights under his belt, he’s about to take a huge step up in competition in facing the 37-year-old Vitali. A worse problem than his lack of experience, is his soft chin. In fights against Jean Marc Mormeck, Lolenga Mock and most recently against Barrett, Haye has been knocked to the canvas.
Additionally, in his fight against a 40-year-old Carl Thompson, a former cruiserweight champion, Haye was knocked silly in the 5th round and subsequently stopped four years ago. Of his other opponents, most of them have been subpar fighters not even worth mentioning or comparing to Vitali. Enzo Maccarinelli, who Haye recently stopped in the 2nd round in March, belongs among the top fighters that Haye fought while in the cruiserweight division, but that fight proves little for Haye, because it ended so quickly.
Indeed, the fight ended before Maccarinelli had enough of a chance to land his own big shots. It would have been interesting to see if Haye’s chin would have been good enough to handle the big punches from Maccarinelli for 12-rounds. I tend to think he wouldn’t have been able to take too much punishment from Maccarinelli without going down.
For his part, Vitali has only fought once in the past four years, beating a slow and ponderous Samuel Peter by a 9th round stoppage in October. Haye has much better foot speed and hand speed than either Vitali or Peter. But that’s about it. Vitali has a much better jab, better combinations and is a lot taller, standing 6’8″ compared to the 6’3″ Haye.
Vitali knows how to use his body leverage to get maximum power on his shots. And though Vitali has been stopped twice in his career, he’s never been actually hurt in the ring or knocked down. In his loss to Chris Byrd in April 2000, Vitali quit on his stool following the 9th round due to a torn shoulder muscle.
At the time that he quit, Vitali was ahead in the fight and looking to be on his way to victory. In Vitali’s other defeat, he was stopped by former heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis in the 6th round due to a severe cut over Vitali’s left eye. In this fight, too, Vitali was ahead in the fight, beating Lewis with jabs and preventing him from landing his big shots.
Haye has great hand speed and uses a lot of hooks. He has a bad habit of throwing lunging shots from the outside, taking risks as he throws shots. Haye has no jab to speak of and is totally reliant on throwing big right hands from the outside.
Haye either lands his right hand or misses, but has no jab to use as a setup punch. For Haye to win, he’s going to have to get in punching distance of Vitali, which won’t be easy. Vitali will be throwing his jabs, short left hooks and straight right hands and will likely catch Haye coming in.
Vitali’s defense is much better than Haye. Ultimately, Haye will get caught with a big shot from Vitali and taken out. Like I said earlier, if Haye can’t remain standing for the entire five rounds against the likes of Barrett, how can he hope to stay on his feet against a much harder puncher and better fighter like Vitali? Maybe if Haye had shown previously that he had the chin to go 12 full rounds against a good heavyweight, I’d find it easier to accept that he could pull off the upset and beat Vitali.
Keep in mind, Haye is really a bulked up cruiserweight who is moving up to heavyweight without any prior experience against other good heavyweights. At the most, Haye probably won’t come into his fight with Vitali weighing anymore than 225, meaning that he’s going to be outweighed by at least 25 pounds and giving up five inches in height. With only two other prior fights against lesser heavyweights, it pretty much spells defeat for Haye.
Haye’s untested, unprepared and not nearly ready for a fighter in the class of Vitali. In truth, Haye needs a good 10 or more heavyweight bouts against top level heavyweights before even being considered for a fight against someone as good as Vitali or Wladimir Klitschko. Of course, he won’t be doing that, because of his rush to get a shot at a heavyweight title. Though his talk got him into a heavyweight title match, I doubt he’ll be able to walk the walk.
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