Does Haye stand a chance against the Klitschko brothers?
November 13th, 2009
By Chris Williams: To listen to some fans of WBA heavyweight champion David Haye, it’s only a matter of time before he beats both the Klitschko brothers and gathers up all the heavyweight titles. Haye, 29, came close to capturing all the titles while fighting as cruiserweight. The only title that escaped Haye was the International Boxing Federation (IBF) title. If Haye had stuck around longer, he probably would have won that title too.
Some of Haye’s boxing fans from Britain think he’ll be able to beat both Klitschko brothers in the next year. I don’t know if Haye has it in him to do it. Haye has the power to knock out Wladimir if he can connect with something hard enough to stun him. But if he can’t get close enough to land, Haye’s chances diminish rapidly. He punches much better when he’s close enough to throw.
I noticed that Haye likes to throw big looping shots against his opponents. It works when he’s fighting a shorter fighter, but he was a lot less successful against the towering seven foot Nikolay Valuev last Saturday night. Haye’s hand speed is quite good and that enabled him to land occasional right hands against Valuev. But Haye’s chances of landing against Wladimir and Vitali are much less, because both of them tend to fight on their back foot, especially Vitali.
I don’t even think it matters with Vitali whether he’s leaning backwards or standing flat footed. He’ll be able to take Haye’s shots without going down. And with his strong jab, good movement and powerful left hook and right hand, Vitali would be very dangerous for Haye to fight. Haye might be able to have a better chance if he waits Vitali out for a couple of years, hoping that the 6’7″ Vitali ages and slows down more by then.
However, if Haye chooses to fight Vitali now, Haye won’t have much of shot at beating him. The movement that Haye did against Valuev would be largely ineffective against Vitali or Wladimir. It might save Haye from getting hit as much, but the only thing that would come of that would be time wasted off the clock of each round. I guess you could equate that to running out the clock in each round.
It would be like a basketball team dribbling and passing the ball to each other up until the shot clock if almost done and then shooting desperately. That wouldn’t win the fight against the Klitschko brothers, because they would be throwing a lot of fast and hard jabs at Haye. With their long reach, the Klitschko brothers would be hitting Haye, unlike the slow moving Valuev who had no bend to his body.
Haye would have a chance of knocking Wladimir out if he could summon up the courage to attack him the way that Lamon Brewster, Corrie Sanders and Ross Puritty did in their wins over Wladimir. However, I don’t for a second think that Haye would be able to take the punishment that Brewster and Puritty took against Wladimir without going down for the count early.
Sanders didn’t get hit that much because he stayed on the outside and blitzed Wladimir early in the fight. Haye would have to try something similar or else risk being stopped by a left hook from Wladimir. I doubt that Wladimir will risk throwing a right hand at Haye, because of Haye’s fast hands and good counter punching ability. But the same token goes for Haye. If he leaves himself open with one of his wild haymaker shots, Wladimir will ruin his world if he connects with a left hook.
Overall, I give Haye not much of a chance of beating Wladimir. He can do it, but Haye will have to attack Wladimir early before the Ukrainian gets his offense started. Once Wladimir starts connecting with his jab, the bout will be over soon after. In the case of Vitali, it doesn’t matter what Haye does. He’ll lose badly. I see Haye doing the clock wasting strategy that he did against Valuev by running three minutes of every round. Haye might figure that he can run enough to limit the punch output from Vitali and maybe tire him out some. It will be a desperate strategy, but it’s the only one that Haye has.
Tags: 26 Responses to “Does Haye stand a chance against the Klitschko brothers?”
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you lot all make me laugh haye will destroy these, hes got the power and speed to take them both apart at the same time, these 2 brothers are the most boring fighters i have ever seen, they just stand in the middle of the ring doing the same jab over and over im surprised when they do another punch there just too slow, haye will take there jaws off fact, every time i have seen them no one has attacked them like haye will and when haye does they wont know whats hit them fact.
jp stupid remark…..why did vlad not fight him—same reason the giant’ fought little competition—don king protected him. just as don king protected brewster after his “ko” win…brewster never fought a top 10 fighter during his reign and you blame this on vlad??? he cant force someone to fight him,,,i suspect haye went this route to avoid him. by the way i dont think vlad has a poor chin…hes been knocked out once—tko really—and was gased in his other loses. he just punched himself out…he also had poor balance when he used to lift weights,,,
Its articles like this is why we should leave off Ricky hatton and Carl Froch cos at least they want to fight the best regardless, David Haye will put money before reputation and look for the most lucrative fight out there rather than look for the best fighter out there so i’m quite certain the klitchko’s will not get to fight him, bad back my arse he pulled out of the klitchko fight cos he wasn’t guaranteed his purse cos setanta sports was going under, i’m not saying he should or anyone else fight for nothing but don’t talk the talk about cleaning up the division and wearing shirts with heads missing if money will pull you out of your so called objective, just hope that under golden boy promotions that some of oscar de la hoya’s will to fight the best will rub off on Haye, Ruiz took stepaside money so Haye could fight Valuev expect that in the rest of Haye’s career cos they will always some angle that he fights the weaker of the opposition out there, I would love to be proved wrong but that won’t happen
People often say that Haye will KO Wladimir Klitschko but struggle against Vitali.
At this point in time David Haye would lose to both and rather easily to.
He needs to get some solid defenses first to build up experience, then maybe he would have a chance.
Wladimir will do to Haye exactly what he did to all his last victims Haye has nothing they don’t have, don’t make something of him that he isn’t.
Valuev was a slow moving target and Chagaev and Holyfield had already exposed him and Haye knew it. he was never going to KO him nobody will but he knew he could out manouver him and did. No big deal.
Ruiz will present no treat to Haye and will be KO’d. However he will have problems should he meet them with Arreola,Solis,Tua, Boytsov, in that order. Wladimir will out jab him and Haye like all the rest will be frustrated as he runs into jab after jab with no answer. Vitali will school him like the last three.
2010 is the Klitschkos year and it will be Hayes head they are after and either one will have it. Vitali for me will reign supreme for the next year. many heads to roll at his hands. enjoy.
Cant see why the negativity for Haye? Why is it if Valuev is now been seen as such a poor fighter did Wlad not fight him? I agree however the Vitali fight will be tough for Haye. After just smashing Areola to bits, however Areola isnt in Hayes league, Haye will have to dodge his jab and then connect but I think it could be 50-50. As for Wlad Haye would knock him out early. He has a poor chin for a heavyweight and doesn’t hit anywhere near as hard as Haye or has the abilty to throw big shots or the speed to dodge Hayes. As for the comment Haye could get beat by Ruiz? How could he have looked better than Haye who beat a World Champion, all be it being negative, compared to a guy who had lost to him twice? How can you look better in two fights and loose, than the guy who beat, and rocked him?
Needless to say im a Haye fan and think he will dispose of Wlad but will have his work cut out against Vitali, but i think the Valuev was a harder fight.
… but makes enough money from these two fights to see him comfortably off into retirement either way !
Haye KO’s Wlad no problem … But loses to Vitali !!
Haye is a good fighter but honestly… he stands no chance.
Haye has been saying lately that he plans on fighting only five more fights and getting out of the sport no later than 31.
The klitschkos can’t hide behind contracts any more. Now they have to face the haye maker.
David will counter punch the klitscho jab. After getting stang a few times, that jab will stay home and then they will have to come up with plan B. And guess what? The klitschkos don’t have a plan B. It’s going to be a painful experience for them, believe me.
Correction – *Vitali is a different kettle of fish* not just a different Kettle…but I bet they do own different ones!
Hayes only 29 which is young for a HW, he’s plenty of time on his side to pick these fights and having the WBA belt will give him far more bargaining power when it comes to the Klitschko brothers. However I feel he should now try and look to cement his status as WBA champ before fighting either brother. As for his chances, I see Haye dispatching Wlad and quite brutally, however I feel Vitali is a different kettle, but I still think Haye has a shot. When was the last time a Klitschko fought an in shape ripped HW, who moves like Haye and punches with such ferocity? They are so use to fighting fat out of shape contenders who are good for a round maybe 2, will they deal with a different type of fighter in front of them? Have they become so accustomed to jabbing to death a slow stationary target I will add effectively)that when forced into a fight and brought out of their comfort zones they fail to adapt?
one punch can turn a fight around,David has the combination of speed & power,Naz had it featherweight & as though would both tell yar if you catch em proper they will go.
David is going to get better too, he hasnt even peaked yet!
i do agree that if haye meets K brothers HE WILL BE DESTROYED!!even tomasz adamek will bit haye easy.if haye is clever enough he will not fight k brothers if he wants not to have brain damage 4 the rest of his life
Unfortunately I have to agree that Haye will struggle against both of them. I suspect either brother will beat him if they meet.
Haye also has the risk of looking beyond Ruiz and not thinking about matters in hand, which could scupper the whole thing.
Sure he’s exciting, but that chin is going to be a problem.
Couldnt agree more. As soon as they Haye said he was thinking of fighting the two i thought “punchers change against wlad, no chance against vitali”
Everyone is presuming Haye would run against either of the Klitschos,Haye had to fight like that against Valuev because in boxing terms he is a freak specimen. inall of hayes previous fights he has looked for the knockout early on, he had to change his style to adapt to a bizzare physical specimen such as valuev.
Excellent article! This is one of the best analyzed boxing articles that I have ever read. I totally agree with your analysis, which, in essence, concludes that while there is a remote possibility that Haye could knock out Wladimir, his chance of beating Vitali is zero. I conclude, without any doubt, that Vitali would easily give Haye a thorough beating. In fact, I think that if James Toney can get himself in shape, then he would have a reasonable chance of beating Haye.
HAYE IS GOING TO BE AN ALLTIME GEAT NUFF SAID!!!!
klitschkos will ko haye the end
Haye has little to offer in a fight vs a Klitschko except his “bomb”. He lacks a jab and running won’t work in the ring against the quicker brothers. Haye is not going to remain standing upright at the end of the fight Wlad or Vitali both have his number.
Haye will soon be able to count the days that he was a heavyweight champ all we need now is a date for his dismantling at the hands of one or the other Klitschko.
BTW, I am not anti-Brit simply don’t care for the likes of Haye.
Haye should fight Solis as a warm up, if he gets by Ruiz.
Maybe Haye is a little scared of Solis. He did get stopped by Solis in the olympics after all. Solis is big puncher who can punch pretty fast also. If Solis lands a big punch on Haye, Haye will probably be counted out.
the shots that haye landed on valuev would have knocked wlad out with ease wlad has a weak chin and i think haye would beat him early in the fight, vitali im not so sure about i think he is clearly the better of the 2 brothers but only time will tell.
spot on, in my opinion.. If Haye wouldnt engage with Valuev, theres no way he’s engaging with either of the faster K brothers.
The Klitschko brothers will be tough fights for Haye.
I think with both Klitschko’s Haye has to have a good strategy to reduce the impact of their jab and to take them outside their comfort zone.
Good elusive movement, throwing frequent punches from unusual angles and an aggressive posture while on the outside will give Haye a good chance against Wladmir.
I agree that Vitali is the stronger of the 2 twins, but feel there may be a good case with Vitali for going out there and trying to land big shots early. He is succeptable to cuts when hit hard, but landing without taking a few in return may be difficult. At the moment I would give haye a slim chance with Vitali, but would feel more confident of his chances if he beats Ruiz and Wladmir in successive fights. It will also be interesting to see how he fares with Kevin Johnson next month.
Given the choice of which twin for Haye to fight I would pick Wladmir.