Is Wladimir Afraid of Haye?
April 19th, 2009
By Jim Dower: IBF heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko looked absolutely traumatized last week in his press conference with David Haye after the former cruiserweight champion arrived with a t-shirt depicting the severed heads of Wladimir and his brother Vitali being held up in each of Haye’s hands. However, it wasn’t just the t-shirt that had Wladimir looking so up, it was the confidence and the things that Haye was saying to him that had Wladimir looking as if he was on the verge of tears when he was speaking the German press.
Wladimir looked totally upset and at a loss how to respond to it all. He looked like he needed help up there on stage next to Haye, and there wasn’t anyone that could come to his rescue because he was up there on his own. None of this has been lost on Haye, who now seems to be aware that Wladimir looks afraid of him and he’s enjoying every minute of it.
The question now is what can Wladimir do to try and overcome Haye’s intimidation factor? I personally can’t think of anything, because when someone’s afraid of a person it usually stays that way until they face them down in some way.
Short of Wladimir tagging Haye with a big left hook on stage next time out, Wladimir’s just going to have to deal with the fear until he has a chance to test whether his fears are groundless or not on June 20th. However, it’s never a good thing to be afraid of an opponent, because it often causes a fighter to perform much below their ability.
I haven’t see Wladimir look so psyched out since his fight with Corrie Sanders six years ago in 2003. Before that fight, Wladimir looked intimidated by Corrie in the pre-fight press conferences. When they fight did step in the ring, Sanders quickly destroyed Wladimir, knocking him down three times in the process of stopping in the 2nd round.
Now, six years later it looks as if we’re on course for another repeat of that fight. Haye may not be quite as tall as the 6’4” Sanders or as powerful, but he does have much better hand speed. The hand speed, the power the intimidation factor could be more than what Haye needs to get the victory over Wladimir.
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if haye had a good chin then i wouldnt even doubt he would win but because it is questionable then i dont know which way the fight is going to go. Hope haye wins by knockout for boxing.
A couple of the clips are up at setanta.com and Wlad does not look afraid or even remotely close to tears?!?! Have I seen a different video? Talk about overstating nothing!
I am a fan of both fighters but Haye is being plain stupid and he is no role model. If Haye could keep his mouth shut I would respect him more but he is just taking crap and so Im gonna hope that Wlad does make him a pizza face! haha
I agree with Doctor.
I can’t say I like Haye’s tactics, but I can understand why he is doing it. I don’t think I will be cheering Haye on though, simply due to his behaviour. There are enough thugs on our streets without them getting another person to “look up” to.
I mentioned only the two for a couple reasons:
a/ purrity was too early in his career it might have been accounted as an accident
b/ Williamson and Peter scored flash knock downs, and could not capitalize – means, they didn’t follow
Sander was the closest to the worst possible nightmare for Wladimir. But he used to have granite chin. He didn’t care all that much about klitschko punches – simply walk trough them an decapitated him. So David must do the same but without getting caught on the way in – simply finish the job once he has the guy hurt. Something Peter and Williamson failed to do, as they’re both underachievers + Peter is naturally lazy and easily discouraged.
I agree with most of the posts on here really.
I think someone who is so used to fighting, both amateur and professional, who has fought hundreds of people, been in the most nerve racking events, will probabaly deal with the pressure quite well.
I dont think hes scared as hes probabaly confident with his ability, if he wasnt then he wouldnt be there today.
I do hope Haye wins just to inject a bit of life into the division.
I dont think he is scared of Haye….
But he will be for the re-match once he has been knocked out on June 20th! Klitsckho’s have lost a little bit of my respect making Haye sign this stupid contract where he has to fight them 3 times!! That is a sign of them being scared
The plump attempt by the Haye troupe to make a spectacle of themselves at the press conference succeeded nicely as we all have had the questionable opportunity to behold. Haye was determined to ham it up wearing his made for tasteless goofballs type t-shirt making his crude publicity stunt perhaps of interest for even the bottommost mother wits. If Wladimir Klitschko was amused by the antics is unsure, certain is that he felt no fear even tho Haye was clearly playing the role of the evil clown. Haye is certainly disgusting making it so much the better to know that he will get his on the 20th of June.
Does anyone have a link to the full conference? There’s only a couple of short clips on YouTube.
This makes me laugh so hard, These guys punch people for a living then get upset by a T Shirt!?! lol
Haye is going to land on the robots chin, And it wont take many.
Vlad seems a little confused as to how to handle Haye at the press conference. And how to handle the media that were loving Hayes antics. And obviously he was angry at the lack of respect he was being shown, the T-Shirt and everything.
He was out of his comfort zone, his press conferences are usually a quiet affair.
But that doesnt mean hes scared of Haye, just caught in an uncomftable position on the day.
did he keep calm? Laugh Haye off? fight back? What did the meadia want? was it all making him look weak? Im sure all that was flying round his head.
Im sure once in the ring there wont be much of him scared of Haye.