Can Haye Solve Vitali’s Height and Reach Advantage?

By Chris Williams: With only two months to go before his fight with WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (37-2, 36 KO’s), heavyweight David Haye (22-1, 21 KO’s) has very little time to train for the fight and come up with the right strategy needed to get past the 6’7” Klitschko’s huge reach advantage. Haye, 28, has a slight head start by his months of training for the canceled bout with WBC heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, but the training for the fight might not be the ticket that Haye is looking for in a fight against big Vitali.

Haye, 6’3”, had hopes of getting in close against Wladimir Klitschko and then ripping him apart with huge shots while in close proximity. However, that strategy might not be as effective against the older Klitschko brothers, who has a much tougher chin than his younger brother Wladimir.

Haye won’t be able to use the same kind of attack that he had planned on using against Wladimir, because that probably won’t work nearly as good and might end up getting Haye hurt. It’s likely that Haye will try to rush Vitali, hit him two or three times, and then quickly retreat hoping not to get hit too often.

That could work for Haye in the short term, but it will be a risky one, because Herbie Hide, a Haye-like clone, tried that against Vitali 10 years ago and ran into chopping right hand. Haye may have great hand speed and good power, but he doesn’t have a great chin. It’s doubtful that Haye can hold up if hit by a number of big right hands from Vitali without going down for the count.

That’s the problem. Haye can’t fight the same way that he’s fought in the past against cruiserweights like Enzo Maccarinelli, because Vitali is much bigger, stronger and sturdier of chin. Even if Haye does land one of his big shots on the button, he may have a problem if Vitali fails to go anywhere.

At that point, Haye would be faced with getting hit in return and he’ll have to hope that his own chin is good enough to take Vitali’s heavy shots. Obviously, rushing Vitali or trying to pot shot him with leaping hooks isn’t advisable.

The risk is too dangerous for him and he doesn’t have the chin to get away with that strategy. Perhaps a better plan for Haye would be for him to circle the ring, using lateral movement to get Vitali out of position where he can land a big right hand. However, Haye will have to work a lot on his own footwork if he wants to get away with something like this, because since moving up to the heavyweight division late last year, Haye moves like a slow tank around the ring and isn’t very nimble on his feet.

He’s good at leaping with hooks, but not so good in moving around the ring laterally. A problem that he has is that he’s too top heavy, carrying around a little too much muscle on his frame. Haye doesn’t have the limber build of someone like Wladimir, and the useless extra muscle that Haye carries around makes him slow on his feet.

Like a lot of fighters that put on too much muscle, he still has great hand speed, but he moves like a slow ox. So, the chances of Haye getting Vitali out of position with movement probably isn’t going to happen. Despite his age, the 38-year-old Vitali actually moves better than the younger 28-year-old Haye.

This is disappointing because you would figure that with Haye moving up from the cruiserweight division, he should have the foot speed advantage to get the better of Vitali. But Haye has always been a fighter that has blown away his opposition with his great power and hasn’t needed to be able to move around well.

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