Is Haye Better Off Not Fighting Wladimir?
February 17th, 2009
By Chris Williams: With today’s news about Wladimir Klitschko deciding to end negotiations with David Haye due to a variety of reasons, I think Haye might be better off now without the fight. The reason is simple: Haye hasn’t the experience, the size, or the chin to compete against a fighter as big, fast, skilled and as powerful as Wladimir, and by taking on a fighter with as much overall talent as Wladimir, I believe it would be way too much of a step up for Haye.
Frankly, all that Haye has accomplished in the cruiserweight divisions, winning the WBC/WBC/WB) titles, doesn’t count as a heavyweight. Beating fighters like Enzo Maccarinelli, Jean Marc Mormeck, Giacobbe Fragomeni, Alexander Gurov, pales to fighting someone like Wladimir Klitschko or his brother Vitali.
Those cruiserweights are good, there’s no doubt, but probably not even the best fighters in the cruiserweight division at this time. Haye was knocked down by Mormeck, Lolenga Mock and Carl Thompson. That tells me that Haye’s accomplishment as a cruiserweight were probably terribly overrated by fans and writers that appeared to have drunk the kool-aid, buying into the hype without evaluating the talent that Haye actually faced.
This is why Haye has more work cut out for him in the heavyweight division than many people might think. Many boxing fans feel that it was justified to vault Haye over more deserving fighters in the heavyweight ranking because of his former status as a world champion in the cruiserweight division. Unfortunately, Haye earned that by fighting some fighters that probably couldn’t hold a belt today in the cruiserweight division. Because of that, Haye needs to wake up and realize that his accomplishments as a cruiserweight were pretty hallow, that he probably would have been knocked out if he fought O’Neil Bell, Steve Cunningham or Tomasz Adamek.
This is why I think that Haye needs to start from scratch in the heavyweight division and focus on beating some good journeyman before moving up against top 15 opponents. He shouldn’t be wasting his time fighting heavyweight champions when all it will probably do is produce a knockout loss for Haye. I say you put him in with fighters like Michael Grant, Brian Minto, Cedric Boswell, Matt Skelton, Sinan Samil Sam, Ray Austin and Audley Harrison.
After fighting those guys for awhile, then slowly start putting him in with top 10 fighters. If he can get through these tests, then go ahead and put him in with someone like Wladimir. By then, Vitali will have long retired from the sport, but that’s okay, he would have knocked Haye out in the 1st round anyway.
Haye will need to change his retirement age goal of 30 to something more realistic, say, 35, because it will take him some time to build up his poor heavyweight skills good enough to beat good fighters and not get knocked about by subpar fighters.
Tags: 9 Responses to “Is Haye Better Off Not Fighting Wladimir?”
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Wladimir will kick Haye’s butt in the ring om June 21st and Haye will start walking crying like a crybaby to his parents at home and Wladimir is going to laugh it off because he is a better fighter than Haye is.
Good article. Agree that Haye is not ready to do battle at the upper level of the heavyweight divsion at this time. Wladimir Klitschko would eat Haye for breakfeast. Haye is more concerned about selling the “Hayemaker” myth than is good for his health.
I think the fact that Wlad had an immediate rematch clause (which lets face it, that is what his rematch clause amounted to)was for a reason, he was concerned about losing his titles, pure and simple. Thats not to say that Haye had the fight in the bag, just that Wlad acknowledged the threat, and Haye was/is a credible threat to him.
Its a shame that this fight has hit a wall, it was an interesting match up that had people talking and im sure would have proved to have been a good show.
what are u talking about? haye has said that he will fight him in germany and accept the rematch deals. i dont know how u can write haye off
ha haaa!!! haye lozes either way he needs to kiss some butt so hecan get this fight he aint nothing compared to wlad. why is he demanding so much, and not being pro? he stands to looz a lot more$ than wlad, he is a dummy dum dum and needs to think about us so we can see him get his big mouth shut or…. well that aint gona hap. but he needs to suck it up and do this for us the fan
Boxrec has Haye ranked as the fourth best active heavyweight out there.
Why would he want to face journeymen when he’s already considered to be amongst the elite boxers in the heavyweight division?
Mmmmmm, tricky one this….. do I listen to an ignorant biased pleb called Chris Williams, or do I pay attention to the information from a recognised boxing industry tool?
To help you make your own minds up, the New York Promoter Lou Di Bella had this to say when asked how important Boxrec was to him, “anyone in boxing who says he doesn’t use Boxrec is either a complete imbecile or lying”.
So are you an imbecile Chris?
i am really fed up with the Haye goings on. i am a Haye fan, but really feel let down. nothing is ever without complications but Haye gets more than his fair share and i think it is down to him. the last fight was a fiasco from the begining and unprofesionalism was cited then by Barret. Then after i bought my ringside seat tickets were sold on a two for one basis, and when i contacted the O2 i was told TOUGH. any way we all decided to forgive him and chose not to go to the Khan fight and save our money for the Klitschko fight at Chelsea only to now find its in f)%£ing Germany. So thanx Haye team now i wont see any big fights this summer as i wont go to the Haye fight even if you change back to London. i hope you read this.
For Christ’s sake, if there is one Klitchko brother whom you want to put Haye in with, it’s Wlad, full stop ! Vitali is as strong as an Ox and Haye would eventually come unstuck against him. However, Wlad is frail around the chin area and that strongly favours Haye. All this crap about Haye working his way through the bums that largely form the current heavyweight division is a stupid statement, even more so considering it’s coming from a supossedly informed writer on this site ( mind you, many of those here have long lost any credibility in my eyes !! ). Haye is not a newbie just on the seen, he has been boxing for many years and cleaned up in his cruiser-division before coming to heavy. I do recall some saying the same s..t about Holyfield when he moved up, but looked just how quickly he adapted and proved his worth ( and he was naturally smaller that Haye ! ).
Fact is Haye was badly struggling to make the cruser for the last 2/3 years in that division, to the point that he was badly weakened in mnay of those latter fights. He will prove to a very good heavyweight, I feel, although he will have to work on his defensive skills just a bit more.
As regards the Klit fight, his speed and real power could well result a very early stoppage of Wlad ( I wouldn’t be surpised if he does it in the first 3 rounds ) … but, if it’s Vitali, Haye will not win.
I’ll agree with that. Here’s a low baller, how about Haye wastes another few months talking by that time Tyson Fury will have notched up a few low grade HW matches like Haye did and he can then fight him. Tyson to win by KO. I Know, only joking, or am I?