Haye Needs to Play it Safe against Valuev

By Sean McDaniel: Heavyweight David Haye has made it known that he intends on trying to take out WBA heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev this Saturday night in Germany. That sounds really good in terms of promoting the fight and getting boxing fans excited about wanting to tune in and watch it. However, I really hope for Haye’s sake that he doesn’t actually intend on trying to take Valuev out because I think Haye’s chin is too brittle to take a big shot from the huge 7-foot Russian.

By Haye going out and attempting to stop Valuev, he’s going to leave himself vulnerable to getting caught on the way in. I could see Haye may be getting away with doing this if he had a more sturdy chin and if he had much better experience at the heavyweight level against good opposition. However, Haye has fought next to nobody in the heavyweight division, and is moving up in weight from the cruiserweight division for this fight.

It would be stupid for Haye to try and trade shots with a fighter as big as Valuev given Haye’s history of being knocked down at the cruiserweight level. Evander Holyfield, who fought Valuev last year and came close to beating him, thinks that Haye shouldn’t even try to stop Valuev, saying that it would be too dangerous for Haye to try to undertake this kind of strategy.

Instead, Holyfield advises that Haye should try to get in and land a couple of hard shots and then get away as fast as possible to avoid getting hit by Valuev. Holyfield suggests that Haye should do this all night long, even if it seems boring. This might just work if Haye can be especially quick when moving in and out. Ruslan Chagaev, not exactly the swiftest of heavyweights, was able to frustrate Valuev for 12 rounds using this fighting approach in their fight in April 2007, beating him by a 12 round majority decision.

Chagaev set the blue print in that fight of how to beat Valuev. By moving constantly, Chagaev made Valuev use his legs a lot, which tired the huge 325 pound Valuev out in the later rounds of the fight. By then, Valuev no longer had any power on his shots, and was too tired to hurt Chagaev. This may be Haye’s only chance of beating Valuev, because he can’t just stand and trade with the big Russian all night long without getting hit with something big and going down.

If Haye does elect to use this approach to fighting Valuev, Haye is going to have to be careful that Valuev doesn’t trap him against the ropes and try to take him out. Valuev is great at cutting off the ring, and Haye isn’t going to be able to move laterally long enough without getting trapped a number of times each round. Haye’s chin has to be able to withstand a certain amount of punishment from the big seven foot Valuev otherwise he has no chance of beating him.

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