Haye vs. Valuev: Big Nikolay looking to knock David out

By Dave Lahr: WBA heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev is counting on shutting up British challenger David Haye next month in his title defense on November 7th in Nuremberg, Germany. Haye has made it difficult for Valuev in the media with his taunting about the Russian’s looks and Valuev would like nothing better than to shut him up for good when they meet next month.

Valuev isn’t a big puncher and so it’s going to be a little more difficult exacting revenge against Haye like he wants to. Haye, in fact, is the bigger puncher in this fight and if there is going to be a knockout, most likely it will be Haye who does the knocking out. However, Haye has big question mark over him in this fight because he hasn’t faced good heavyweight competition as of yet and because he’s spent most of his career in the cruiserweight division.

Basically, this is a pumped up cruiserweight vs. an aging over-sized heavyweight. Haye has to use his speed and power to avoid getting hit by Valuev’s clubbing shots. Haye’s previous competition at heavyweight – Monte Barrett and Tomasz Bonin – will be totally useless for him against the big Russian Valuev because he’s a much better heavyweight than Barrett or Bonin.

Haye is going to be facing a much bigger fighter than he ever has before. At 7-foot 320 pounds, Haye has to try and find a way to reach Valuev’s chin without getting tagged by any of his big shots. Compared to the fighters that Haye has fought in the past, most of the not much bigger than six feet, he’s got someone that is huge and who knows how to use his height.

Haye has to find a way to beat him, because if he blows this chance at a title, Haye could find himself waiting for an awful long time before he gets another shot. The worst part about that is that Haye would then actually be forced to fight some of the legitimate top contenders in order to get another shot at a title.

He wouldn’t be able to back his way into another title shot with a fight against someone like Barrett. If Haye were to have to fight top contenders like Odlanier Solis or Kevin Johnson, I don’t know that he would be good enough to beat them. He’s kind of an all or nothing type of fighter, meaning that unless he’s able to knockout his own opponent, he’ll probably be beaten by a decision or stoppage.

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