Haye Looking Over-Muscled and Slow in Training

By Chris Williams: Just as I thought he would, former cruiserweight champion of the world David Haye (22-1, 21 KOs) is looking over-muscled, slow and ponderous in recent video of him training for his huge mega fight with IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (52-3, 46 KOs) with only three weeks to go before their fight at the Veltins Arena, in Gelsengirchen, Germany.

It looks as if Haye has been working steadily at adding muscle to his small 215 pound frame so that he could bulk up to try and compete with the huge 245 pound Klitschko for their fight in three weeks. However, instead of making Haye appear more prepared to meet the champion of three years, it appears to have made Haye much slower in moving and punching than he was before adding the weight.

It’s unknown how much weight that Haye has put on but it looks as if it’s at least 10 or pounds judging by his muscle bound physique. I had a feeling that this was going to be a problem for Haye when I saw him as a cruiserweight, because back then he already looked as muscular as he could get without becoming slow and constricted from too many muscles for his small frame.

The problem with Haye is that he doesn’t have the proper frame for the heavyweight division and is really a more of a blown of light heavyweight that has been competing at cruiserweight. Without the proper bone structure as a heavyweight, when Haye puts on extra weight, he adds to his already over-muscular physique which makes him slower, more tank-like than before.

It might help Haye in a short fight of say three rounds, but if the fight goes beyond three rounds, Haye is going to be like an over-muscled body builder gasping for breath and totally gassed out while moving around the ring against Wladimir.

I suppose Haye has no other choice but to add muscle to his small frame, because if he attempts to fight Wladimir weighing only 215, Haye is going to be getting thrown around the ring each time he’s hit by one of Klitschko’s big shots. However, it might be better for Haye to trim down to 210 or 205 rather than to move up in weight, because even at 215, Haye was too muscular and slow for his own good.

Haye looked bad in his fight against Monte Barrett and appeared much slower than he was a cruiserweight. I’d say the extra 15 pounds that Haye put on did exactly nothing for him other than having the effect of tying extra weights to his body and slowing him down. When bigger heavyweights put on muscle it often makes them better.

However, with Haye judging by the Barrett fight and his recent training video, he looks as if he’s the equivalent of a fat person in a muscular suit. In case people aren’t aware of this, there’s an optimal amount of muscle that a fighter can put on before they become muscle bound and slow.

When a fighter like Haye has reached that point, they’re pretty much hurting themselves by putting on any additional muscle. In the case of Haye, I think he reached that point in his Barrett fight and if he goes out there against Wladimir on the 20th looking like the blister bag that I just saw in the video, Haye can kiss goodbye any chance that he had hoped to have in capturing Wladimir’s titles.

I think Haye needs to take off all that useless muscle and get down to 205 and try to beat Wladimir with speed rather than muscle. Against Barrett, Haye was a no better puncher than he was against Enzo Maccarinelli as a cruiserweight. Haye was slower and less effective. Being slow will get him knocked out against Klitschko.

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