DeGale comments on Haye’s victory – News

By Chris Williams: British Olympic middleweight Gold Medalist James DeGale saw newly crowned World Boxing Association heavyweight champion David Haye’s fight with seven foot Nikolay Valuev last weekend, but thought the fight was “boring” and further wasn’t impressed by the slow 36-year-old Valuev, according to The Sportlife. DeGale said “He’s [Valuev] big, but I could have knocked him beaten him.”

Haye, 29, defeated Valuev by a boring 12 round majority decision in a fight in which Haye fought a safety first bout for 12 rounds by moving constantly and throwing few punches. Haye mostly landed single shots, when he would throw punches at all. Many of Haye’s punches were either blocked by Valuev or missed. Precious few landed, but Valuev wasn’t doing much better, although he was trying to. Valuev was unable to catch up to the constantly moving Haye due to his movement.

“He [Haye] could have knocked him out if he’d stuck it on him a bit more,” DeGale said. “I know he hurt his hand, so he’s got an excuse.” Haye wasn’t throwing many punches before the injury occurred, so it’s hard to tell how much the injury changed the course of the fight.

DeGale, 23, thinks that Haye’s win is good for British boxing and also believes that the heavyweight division is in need of a fighter like him to bring new life to the heavyweight division. Haye’s performance wasn’t impressive, as DeGale states, and if Haye is going to be making a mark in the heavyweight division he’s going to have to take more chances and try to look more exciting.

Haye won’t be able to simply talk a lot of trash and expect that his song and dance will continue be successful. Haye will have to actually perform well. Haye was given a pass for this fight because of his size disadvantage and partly due to his reported injury to his hand. However, if Haye continues to come up with excuses for not performing well, the boxing public may be less inclined to believe him in his next fight. Haye is facing his WBA mandatory challenger John Ruiz in early 2010. Ruiz is 6’2” 226, shorter and only slightly heavier than Haye. If Haye can’t look good against the 37-year-old Ruiz, it may be a signal that Haye’s talent has transferred well from the cruiserweight level to the heavyweights.

Haye wants to fight one of the Klitschko brothers in a unification bout late 2010, a fight which would be a huge money maker at least in Europe. Haye, and his backers, feel that Haye can defeat either of the Klitschko brothers and clean up the heavyweight division. However, the chances of Haye defeating either of the Klitschko brothers are quite low at best.

Haye wouldn’t be able to beat either of them fighting the way that he did last Saturday night. He also can’t beat them by throwing wild haymaker shots like he usually does against his opponents. Haye needs to be more technically oriented and will have to throw more than 10 to 15 punches per round to get the win. The Klitschko’s punch much harder than Valuev, and they have a much harder jab as well. Even if Haye chose to run around the ring all night long, he’d be nailed by jabs and soundly beaten.

The Klitschko brothers are accustomed to fighting timid fighters similar to Haye, who choose not to mix it up. Haye wouldn’t be anything new for them. However, if Haye has any chance at all in beating them, he’s going to have to go after them and try to take them out with power shots. He won’t be able to do it by throwing one punch at a time like he did against Valuev. If Haye had been fighting the Klitschko brothers last Saturday night, he would have likely lost every round of the fight and very likely would have been knocked out in the process.

Haye needs to try and ramp up his offense to try and find the spark that made him an exciting fighter in the cruiserweight division. Thus far, Haye hasn’t looked anything like the new Mike Tyson in two of his three fights against beatable fighters in the heavyweight division. Haye hasn’t been put in with anyone really dangerous yet, even through Valuev held the title of champion. There are heavyweight contenders in the division who have arguably a lot more talent than Valuev.

Haye would have very likely had big problems if he had been in with one of them rather than the slow moving, weak punching Valuev. The fight against Ruiz, although not the ideal opponent to see how good Haye is, will at least give a decent gauge to see how good he is at the heavyweight level. If Haye doesn’t dominate Ruiz, you can pretty much assume that Haye will be blown out of the water by either Klitschko brothers. Ruiz and Valuev would both likely be destroyed.

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