Haye’s insults haven’t had any effect on Valuev

By William Mackay: David Haye might as pack it in with his never ending insults of World Boxing Association heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev. Haye’s comments haven’t stirred Valuev to life, and the big 7-foot Russian doesn’t appear angry or in the mood to go out and destroy Haye next Saturday night in Nuremburg, Germany. Haye, 29, says that part of the reason that he’s insulted Valuev so much was that he is hoping to get him upset enough to the point where he will lose his cool and try to slug it out rather than to think with his head.

I don’t know how Haye ever thought that he would have any success with this kind of approach, because Valuev isn’t that kind of fighter that loses his temper and tries to go after his opponents. If anything, the only emotion that Haye has stirred in Valuev is a lot of annoyance, as if dealing with a dimwit. You can see Valuev’s intelligence in his interviews.

He thinks out the questions and doesn’t fly off the handle the same way that Haye does when being interviewed. Since Haye’s main purpose was to try and get Valuev upset, Haye has to settle for having had the effect of selling more tickets with his trash talking. To that end, Haye has done good job, because the Arena Numberger Versicherung, is about sold out for the fight.

However, that won’t win the fight for Haye. He’s still going to have to find a way to deal with Valuev’s huge size and reach. Haye is hoping to be able to land counter shots against Valuev, and he may we get his chance. However, if Haye’s big shots have no effect, he will find himself in a real back and forth fight. That’s something that Haye hasn’t had in considerable amount of time.

As a cruiserweight, Haye has the size advantage over his opponents, and with the exception of his fights with Carl Thompson and Jean Marc Mormeck, Haye wasn’t hit a lot in his fights because of his bigger size than his opponents. Against Valuev, Haye is likely going to get hit a lot if he’s unable to take him out quickly like he typically has done with most of his opponents during his seven year pro career. Indeed, only three of Haye’s 23 opponents have made it past the 7th round against him.

That’s an extraordinary figure which tells you how hard he hits. But there’s also a drawback with something like that. It shows that Haye doesn’t have a lot of experience fighting deep into his bouts and his stamina may be tested against the big seven foot Valuev.

Haye has only fought 78 rounds during his entire pro career, an incredibly small amount of rounds for a pro with seven years under his belt. Haye could end up like George Foreman and find himself worn down if Valuev can take his power shots and get him deep into the fight where Haye is much less formidable.

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