Haye Wants Tyson Fury as a Sparring Partner to Prepare for Valuev

By William Mackay: British heavyweight David Haye is looking at trying to get big 6’9″ unbeaten Tyson Fury (8-0, 7 KO’s) as a sparring partner to help him prepare for his November 7th challenge of World Boxing Association Nikolay Valuev in Germany. This would be great news if Fury takes up the offer and decides to spar with Haye, because David needs all the help he can get against the big seven foot behemoth Valuev.

Fury may be shorter than Valuev by three to four inches, but Fury is probably the tallest fighter that Haye is going to be able to dig up with the kind of talent needed to get him ready for Valuev.

Haye had this to say about the prospects of sparring with Fury: “If Tyson Fury is available, then yes. I’m around at the moment and if he’s [Tyson Fury] got a fight coming up, I am more than willing to spar with him. He doesn’t have to pay me, that’s for sure.”

Of course, Haye is only joking about the pay issue, because obviously he’d have to pay a talented heavyweight like Fury whatever the going rate is for top notch sparring partners. However, this is something that would be benificial for Fury as well. He’s been complaining as of late about his inability to dig up decent sparring partners in England and has had to fly out of the country to spar with German and Ukrainian sparring partners.

Having a fighter like Haye to spar with would be a great benefit for Fury if he’s open to taking on the job with Haye. Granted, Haye is a small heavyweight at 6’3″ 215, but he’s got hand speed and talent that many other heavyweight contenders could only dream about.

Perhaps Haye can teach Fury to sit down on his punches a little bit more than Fury did in his last fight against John McDermott. Haye is still a fighter who has a lot to learn about how to fight in the heavyweight division, but even as flawed as he is, Haye is a dramatic leap up in competition for Fury from Tyson’s recent fight against McDermott.

Haye is going to have to find a way to solve Valuev’s big size because this isn’t going to be as easy as some people think it will be. Haye looks smaller than most of Valuev’s recent opponents in terms of weight and will have to hope that his hand speed and movement will enable him to get inside Valuev’s big bear-like arms.

Valuev isn’t a big puncher, but he might not have to be with a fighter like Haye, who has a history of being hurt by less than huge punchers. Valuev probably punches harder than Carl Thompson, Monte Barrett and Jean-Marc Mormeck, all of which were able to put Haye down on the canvas.

Haye has never fought a fighter nearly as big as Valuev, so all of Haye’s previous fights can be pretty much thrown out the window for this bout. The tallest opponent of Haye’s career was the 6’5 1/2″” Alexander Gurov, who is still five and a half inches shorter than the 7′ foot Valuev. However, there’s a huge difference from beating a slender fighter like Gurov and a big giant like Valuev. If Haye fails at knocking Valuev out, he may find himself wishing he was still fighting as a cruiserweight.

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