Haye-Valuev: Can David beat Nikolay by Decision?

By William Mackay: With former cruiserweight champion David Haye (22-1, 21 KO’s), he knocks out almost everyone that he faces. Fighters aren’t able to make it through a full bout with him without being stopped. Only in two cases has Haye been in a fight in which he wasn’t able to stop his opponent, and in one of those fights Haye lost to Carl Thompson. Haye’s knockout record is very impressive and quite stunning.

It shows that he has enormous punching power and is someone that you have to be very careful about when fighting. However, one question that pops up is what will happen if Haye isn’t able to knock out World Boxing Association heavyweight champion big Nikolay Valuev in their upcoming November 7th fight in Nuremburg, Germany.

Will Haye be able to go the full 12 rounds without wearing down and getting stopped by Valuev? Haye isn’t much of a boxer and tends to get his wins by opening up with explosive combinations, usually after catching his opponent off guard with a big right hand or left hook.

If this was a fight against IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, I would give Haye a great chance of catching him and taking him out with some powerful combinations. But things might not work out like that against the big 7’ Russian Valuev. He’s never been knocked down, although he has been hurt on a couple of occasions during his pro career.

Valuev, however, will be expecting big power shots from Haye and will be guarding against getting whacked by one of them. Haye might not find it easy to land one of his big haymakers in the first place, because he’ll have to punch upwards a foot. Fighters tend to lose power when punching up, and for a fighter to have to punch upwards against a big seven foot heavyweight like Valuev, it’s got to have a negative effect on their power.

I don’t care if Haye is one of the biggest punchers in the heavyweight division, he may not have the same kind of power when he’s throwing his shots at the chin of the seven foot Valuev. If Valuev doesn’t go anywhere when Haye lands his big shots, we may have a problem for Haye. Valuev will no doubt he landing his shots and even though he’s not a real big puncher, he can still win rounds by his jabs.

I doubt Valuev will throw right hands unless Haye strays really close. I think Valuev will be too nervous to throw his right for fear that he’ll get countered. But his jab will be a major weapon for him and he won’t miss with it. Haye will have to stand on the outside for most of the fight because if he strays too close, Valuev will maul him with clubbing shots. I don’t think that Haye could stand up to a barrage of clubbing shots from Valuev. His chin would probably give out if he had to take many of those clubbing punches.

I just don’t know that Haye will be winning rounds if his whole game is to try and peck away with an occasional big punch. What will probably happen is that Haye will get tired by the 7th or 8th round, especially if Valuev is able to clinch and wrestle with him on the inside.

Haye will have all that weight leaning on him and will tire out. You’ll see that at first with Haye’s punch rate dropping and then his hand speed will slow down as well. At that point, it will probably take one good clubbing right hand from Valuev to put Haye down on the canvas.

Once Haye is tired, he stays tired. Even if Haye got back to his feet, Valuev would have a punching bag to tee off on for a brief spell before he knocks Haye down for the 2nd and final time. Haye has great power, but he’s no boxer and has poor stamina.

9 Responses to “Haye-Valuev: Can David beat Nikolay by Decision?”