Haye: “I’m ready to explode right now”

By Chris Williams: David Haye is raring to go for his match this Saturday night against World Boxing Association heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev. Haye believes that he’s going to handle Valuev without too many problems and knock him out in an impressive fashion to capture the seven foot Russian’s WBA title. “I’m ready to explode right now, but I can see why people think I will lose against the giant [Valuev],” Haye said in an article in the Mirror.

“He’s much taller, much heavier and can fight a lot better than people give him credit for.’ This is true. Valuev is a much better fighter than a lot of people are saying he is and he could very well defeat Haye and make him look bad in the process. It was only last year that Valuev easily handled then top contender Sergey Lyakhovich, beating him by a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision in February 2008. Lyakhovich, at the time, was one of the best heavyweights in the division and someone who had actually fought in the division throughout his career rather than moving up in weight like Haye. That’s the downside about Haye.

Haye has little experience at the heavyweight level and hasn’t broken his back trying to get the better experience. Haye had a chance to fight both Klitschko brothers, talking his way into the fights, but then backed away just as quickly. Other than those two fights, Haye chose to take the easy route by facing Monte Barrett and Tomasz Bonin rather than more dangerous heavyweight threats that would have had a better chance of beating him.

So Haye is effectively going from competing against the likes of Enzo Maccarinelli, Jean Marc Mormeck, Barrett and Bonin into a fight against Valuev, who would probably easily beat that entire bunch on the same night if he had to. That’s not to say that those aren’t good fighters but with Valuev’s mammoth size and reach, he would handle each of them without breaking a sweat because of their limited size.

Haye’s whole game is built around knocking out his opponents. Haye has never really developed his boxing skills to the extent that he would win fights by decision. He hasn’t had to, luckily for him. But by not having to develop his boxing skills, Haye finds himself in a situation where he might have problems if he can’t dent the chin of the seven foot Valuev. The big Russian has a great chin and has never been off his feet, so Haye is going to have to figure out another strategy to use if the knockout doesn’t come.

Haye loses a lot of his power as the rounds go by and becomes much more hittable. At 215, Haye’s punches might not have any effect on the steel chinned Valuev. If Haye is forced to fight a long 12 round bout with Valuev, Haye might find himself getting hit more than he expected to in the latter part of the fight when he tends to tire.

Against the smallish 5’9” Giacobbe Fragomeni, Haye was hit a lot in rounds seven through nine and it looked for a time there that Fragomeni might stop the badly bleeding Haye. If Haye tires as badly as he did against Fragomeni and Carl Thompson, who stopped Haye in the 5th round in 2004, then Valuev is going to take Haye out without too many problems. Haye doesn’t have the resume required to fight a champion like Valuev in the first place and that lack of experience may end up being Haye’s downfall when he finds that he’s not ready for this fight.

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