By Jim Slattengren: Much of David Haye’s recent intimidation campaign has been centered on trying to get IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko to trade punches with him rather than fight at a distance which the 1996 former super heavyweight Gold Medalist for Ukraine is likely to do. Haye, 28, has angered Wladimir at two of the three press conferences by wearing a t-shirt showing Wladimir Klitschko and his brother, WBC heavyweight champion, Vitali’s heads being held up in each of Haye’s outstretched arms.
Haye isn’t even hiding the fact that he’s hoping to make Wladimir made enough to where he will abandon his usual strategy of using a lot of jabbing and focuses more on trying to trade shot for shot with Haye. If the fight boils down to becoming a war, Haye is betting that he can get to Wladimir Klitschko before he gets to him.
It’s a risky strategy, but then again it’s Haye’s only way of winning and he knows it. Haye doesn’t have the reach of Wladimir and doesn’t possess an excellent jab like he does. In fact, Haye doesn’t really use jabs all that much in his offense.
Sure, he throws but more of a token effect. His main weapons are his left hook and clubbing right hand. If the fight comes down to Wladimir jabbing from the outside, then Haye’s only real chance, due to his lack of height and reach, will be for him to lunge quickly with left hooks and right hands, hoping that he can catch Wladimir with one of them.
However, Haye has probably seen enough video of Wladimir to realize that the Ukrainian often leans away when shorter fighters like Haye try to come forward with big home run swings. This means that Haye might not have much luck in catching Wladimir cold with one of Haye’s pot shots like he did with Enzo Maccarinelli and Monte Barrett.
Haye won’t have enough time to get off one big punch at a time, because whether it lands or not, Wladimir is very likely going to grab him in a tight clinch to prevent Haye from getting any additional shots off. From there, the referee will then separate Klitschko and Haye, giving Wladimir a new start where he can continue jabbing Haye from the outside.
In a real sense, Haye’s will be reduced to throwing pot shots. If he were a taller heavyweight with longer arms like Corrie Sanders, Haye would have a great chance of getting close enough to hurt Wladimir. However, Haye is about the same size as Barrett, and not a particularly big heavyweight.
Haye thinks that his small size will benefit him by giving him more hand speed and better movement. That may be, but he’ll be much smaller than Wladimir and won’t have the reach needed to make Wladimir trade shots with him.
If Wladimir chooses not to get angry and fall for Haye’s trap, I don’t know how Haye can win this fight. He’ll have to take a lot of risk attacks if he wants to catch Wladimir cold, and by lunging in with his primitive attacks, Haye will be a sitting duck for short left hooks from Wladimir. In a way, Haye is the equivalent of Vic Darchinyan and Wladimir is like Nonito Donaire. Like Donaire, Wladimir has a great left hook that he likes to use against fighters like rush him.
He used it against Samuel Peter in the 11th round four years ago and staggered him badly. Peter rushed Wladimir and forgot completely about his left hook and ended up almost getting knocked out. With Haye, though, Wladimir’s going to have many more chances because Haye’s entire offense is built around lunging punches. He can’t fight at a distance because of his lack of reach and has to come in with badly telegraphed punches.
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