Haye vs. Klitschko: Is Wladimir Killing Boxing?
April 22nd, 2009
By William Mackay: With the Wladimir Klitschko (52-3, 46 KOs) and David Haye (22-1, 21 KOs) about two months away, I think this is as good a time as any to discuss whether Wladimir is hurting the sport of boxing by continuously dull title defenses of his IBF/WBO heavyweight titles. Since winning the title in 2006, Wladimir, 33, has been a big disappointment in his title defenses, showing little emotion, very little aggression and seemingly content to win by doing just enough to get the victory.
As such, Wladimir’s bouts are rarely talked about and when they are, it’s often in negative terms. In short, Wladimir has failed at giving boxing fans the type of entertainment that they’ve been looking for in a heavyweight.
Although Wladimir continues to be a popular figure in Europe (Germany, Ukraine & Russia) where he and his brother Vitali Klitschko are worshiped by fans, it isn’t that way elsewhere around the world. In other places, Wladimir isn’t well thought of because of his safety first fights which include mostly jabs and little else.
Since winning the title in 2006, Wladimir has looked unspectacular against Lamon Brewster, Hasim Rahman, Calvin Brock, Ray Austin, Sultan Ibragimov and Tony Thompson. Each one of them were the type of fighters that Wladimir – if he chose to – could have looked good if he had come out firing away from the start.
After all, each of them is flawed and not nearly as dangerous as someone like David Haye. Yet, Wladimir fought them as if they were knockout artists and someone to be wary about. Now, three years later, Wladimir finally is facing a real threat in British heavyweight David Haye, and I’m now I’m really hoping that Haye can knock Wladimir out so that we’re free of him as a fighter.
The heavyweight division needs a champion who brings excitement to the table and not someone that puts the fans asleep both in and out of the ring. Wladimir’s interviews are about as interesting as watching paint dry and rarely has anything revealing to say.
And it seems to carry over to the way he fights. Unlike his brother Vitali, who tries to take off his opponents’ heads, Wladimir just jabs and holds. The style is very similar to how Lennox Lewis used to fight, but in my view, much worse because Lewis could be counted on to throw some huge uppercuts at any time in his fights.
Wladimir, however, doesn’t even throw an uppercut and only seems to throw his right hand or left hook when he thinks it’s absolutely safe to do so. This is why it’s for the best that Haye knocks Wladimir out and puts him out of his misery.
If Haye can then beat Wladimir again in a rematch, and get rid of his brother Vitali, we’ll have a real champion for awhile in Haye and one that can finally bring some excitement to the dying heavyweight division. I don’t know about you but I can’t wait.
Tags: 18 Responses to “Haye vs. Klitschko: Is Wladimir Killing Boxing?”
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look… all i gotta say is.. WHERE THE F*CK IS HAYE? first he wears that t-shirt, can we say, low blow??? wlad said in response he was gonna knock him out. plain and simple. ok, haye finds a way to get injured, go figure.. now hes out all together.. sounds to me like he has a case of swollen man-gina. can we say.. NEXT!!!!
When Wladimir beats Haye in the same manner he’s beaten everyone else (boring as it may seem), what’ll you say then? Everyone going to make excuses then? Wladimir has a way of neutralizing opponents, and I think almost the same will happen with Haye
yea it is, if the champion is a bum then the challenger wont be threatened and wont train for the fight, thats wat has happened here, no1 trains because they think being a bum is good enough and since wlad is champ..it works
I doubt you could call Haye a chav. Haye’s confident and confrontational nature is British working class grit. The lower classes in modern British society seem to be a class of mooching state spongers. Something Haye is not. People see the Klitschko brothers as gentlemen and intellectuals. I am sorry but that is not an excuse for a dull fighter. Ali, Foreman and Lewis are intelligent men yet were exciting in and out of the ring.
Compare Hayes antics to Ali in his time. If Haye came out and gave poetry to the masses about how he would destroy the Klitschko’s then we would see him as an Ali and even a Mayweather Sr impersonator.
Haye has done what he has had to and got himself 3 world title fights in this deal. He has also managed to sell over 30,000 tickets on the first day of sales.
This was Haye not Wladimir who has brought people to stand in queue’s.
Wladimir should send David Haye a big bunch of flowers thanking him for such great promotional work.
Wladimir will knock Haye down. Haye will get up just as Wladimir has asked of him. However the unfortunately for the big Ukrainian it will end Wladimir being knocked out and his belts around the British bigmouth’s waist.
mantisspider
I am one of that said class so I do know a little of it. I think you are confusing the Working Class with the Underclass, or as the Germans call it Untermensch, that is a completely different world. One in which I have no liking. Trash lives, Chav’s, nothing but themselves to think about. Now who could I be thinking of?
Anyway just of to watch a Julie Andrews film and a cookery class given by Wladimir Klitschko on how to make a Pizza, its going to be shown on June 20th don’t miss it.
Wlad by TKO
i think you can blame him for being a boring and over cautious fighter, but i dont think you can blame him for the state of the division that is its own problem, but i think you can blame him for the lack of exitement he brings to the sport, ok the division is bad enough without him making it worse he could actually get in the ring and throw caution to the wind and try an get the guys out but know he continues to carry these bums when he could probly dispose of them easily if he took the risk, hopefully like you say haye can take him out but he will have to do it twice because of the rematch clause, im not so sure about him being able to take out vitali because he cant only just take shots he gives them out too.
Screw the Klitschko’s and screw the heavyweight division. There are so many talented, exciting fighters in the lower weight classes that put these two automatons to shame.
The problem with the heavyweight division is that the most of them aren’t exiting fighters like in the lower weight divisions. This is a FACT! The last exciting fight I can remember was Vitali against Lewis (and that wasn’t really that exciting!). Since then there really hasn’t been enough top quality heavyweights calling each other out, going for first round KO’s etc. Until now. David Haye has lit up the heavyweight division (even though he has fought twice in the division, which isn’t that important), everybody has a split opinion on him, some love his arrogance, some hate it. Klitscho fans will tell you that Haye is going to get beat up badly, but haven’t you not seen Wladimir’s losses??? Maybe you like watching his jab jab jab.
I have seen live (on tv) all of the Klitscho’s fights (brother included) over the last 6 years, the best fight’s I have seen Wladimir in was when he lost! Not because he lost, it was the way he lost them. Klitscho is a great fighter but is still human. That is why he has lost a few times because he didn’t defend himself properly. Now over the last few fights he has been dominating them, that is because he has been in a very defensive mode until his oppenent couldn’t take any more jabs i.e. Tony Thompson fight. The last person that has tested Wladimir properly beat him FACT.
Some of you say that Haye’s chin is like glass? I don’t know where you get that from, I have seen most of Haye’s fights, and ok in some he has gone done, but he has got straight back up and knocked out his opponent. The only loss in his whole career was against Carl Thompson, of which took a major beating that night, but with his experience he took the pain, road the rounds and fought back in the 5th to TKO Haye. Haye was TKO’d because he was knackered after the first round. He put everthing into that round (due to inexperience) and paid for it later. When you watch his last 4-5 fights this isn’t the case anymore. He’s now coy, buys his time, waits for the right moment, and then releases the hayemaker on them (similiar to Klitscho’s but without jabs and massive shots).
All I can say is that it’s going to be a massive test on June 20th for both fighters, and if Haye beats Wladimir, he is going to have to fight the better brother afterwards (which imo seems a lot harder).
Whether you like Haye or not, ask yourself this:
If David Haye never stepped up to the heavyweight division, where would be it be now, or lets say in 3-4 years?
IMO the Klitschos’s would still be champions due to inferior opposition. Maybe the only other fighter that can be mentioned is Arreola. His reputation is slightly inflated due to his record and being of course being american, but I don’t think when push comes to shove he could be an undisputed unified champion. He carries so much weight that he is bound to get warn out in the later rounds of any fight. His moto is get knocked out or be knocked out, which wasn’t how the best fought.
Wlad cant be blamed for killing the competition – he is at the top of the division on merit, doing his thing (boring or not)
If anything, its the competition (or lack of) thats killing boxing…
doctor, Haye is exactly like the English. If you do not understand that, then you obviously know absolutely nothing about England and think we are all like Julie Andrews.
Haye is epitome of the working class Englishman. It is a class society and Haye represents a certain class.
I agree with your comments that for the majority of people they do not know about the Eastern European and non American/British fighters. However this is not new and has always been the case.
The problem with the Klitschko’s is simply that they have a defensive style that is not exciting to watch. Regardless that they knock out opponents, the manner in which the rest of the bout was fought leading up to the KO was dull.
Haye is exciting to watch because he is unpredictable and can be knocked down at any moment and can Knock out opponents at any moment.
The “exciting” boxers like Tyson!?! Sure he was exciting (Miss Washington knows how exciting Tyson is too), exciting in his “special” way, just enquire at Holyfield’s how much excitement this coarse laddie can / could bring into the square ring. Foreman was a class by himself and would fit in well in today’s boxing world with its oversized giants as the clear favorites in the box ring. Smallish pretenders like Haye or Povetkin will always have their difficulties fighting the “big boys” cus nature just gives the bigger, taller man the edge. Combine size (including reach), hitting power, skill and experience into a bundle and you get a Wladimir or Vitali Klitschko. When the writer claims Klitschko is unspectacular in his wins over a host of big bad men from all over the planet putting most of these dudes to sleep in the process and still dawdles on about Klitschko being unspectacular he is revealing disdain for the super champion WK and nothing more. Excitement like so much in life is in the eye of the beholder and milllions shout Wladimir is exciting and are willing to pay real money to watch this great Ukrainian boxer knock the heads off opponents repeatedly and year after year.
The “exciting” boxers like Tyson!?! Sure he was exciting (Miss Washington knows how exciting Tyson is too), exciting in his “special” way, just enquire at Holyfield’s how much excitement this coarse laddie can / could bring into the square ring. Foreman was a class by himself and would fit in well in today’s boxing world with its oversized giants as the clear favorites in the box ring. Smallish pretenders like Haye or Povetkin will always have their difficulties fighting the “big boys” cus nature just gives the bigger, taller man the edge. Combine size (including reach), hitting power, skill and experience into a bundle and you get a Wladimir or Vitali Klitschko. When the writer claims Klitschko is unspectacular in his wins over a host of big bad men from all over the planet putting most of these dudes to sleep in the process and still dawdles on about Klitschko being unspectacular he is revealing disdain for the super champion WK and nothing more. Excitement like so much in life is in the eye of the beholder and milllions shout Wladimir is exciting and are willing to pay real money to watch this great Ukrainian boxer knock the heads off opponents repeatedly and year after year.
if haye can hit wlad with his mouth he will knock him out! his fights are boring because his opposition has been so-so,haye is a good talker getting a fight for the title without fighting any solid heavyweights
Adam, you always throw the 46 KO’s response to any claim that Wlad is boring, KO’s dont necesarily make a good fight, they just make somebody fall over.
Wlad doesnt have the most enjoyable style to watch, granted, but i dont think its fair to blame him for the state of the division. Its up to the challenger to force the fight, not the champ, the champs only job is to remain the champ.
Most of the guys out there at the moment dont have the balls to force the fight, they dont have the balls to risk a couple of shots in order to land heavy on Wlad. With Wlad being knocked out twice, he is obviously going to defend himself and not risk opening up until completely safe to do so, thats just his style now, any trainer worth his ridiculous pay packet would train him to do so. Its up to the challenger to open him up, send somebody in there all gung-ho and yee-haa (he doesnt have to be a cowboy) and hopefully we will see a fight.
Haye will do this. In a more English fashion so no yee-haas, but he will go out there from the off firing on all cylinders, Wlad will either sit behind his jab or go nuts.
I hope to hell he goes nuts.
He is pretty boring to be onest but the whole weight is.
Ye,Wlad is boring with 46 KO’s on his record.Wlad does just enough to win? I guess knocking someone the hell out is boring.Wlad isn’t going anywhere so get used to him being the Heavyweight Champ.And if Wlad was pawing at his opponents then why dont they just rush him.I’ll tell you why.Because it’s not a paw.It’s a jab that slams into their face like David Haye’s power punches.Wlad’s left hook and right hand are vicious and Haye will be beaten to a pulp in short order.
Im always disappointed when I see such a big powerful guy fight like the cowardly Lion out of the Wizard of oz! “pud em up pud em pud em up”. But until someone comes steps up to the plate and beats him its not his fault, he only wants to win after all and win at all costs. No point in him going out and fighting the fight someone else wants him to fight and then wind up getting beat.
Bout time you guys write some clear and right stuff here. first time i liked the article here