Haye-Valuev: David Won’t Last Long Against Big Nikolay

By Chris Williams: For the past couple of weeks, there has been numerous quotes coming from former cruiserweight champion David Haye (22-1, 21 KO’s) how he’ll knock out World Boxing Association heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev (50-1, 34 KO’s) on November 7th, at the Nurnberger Arena, in Nuremberg, Germany. However, Haye might find himself on the receiving end of a knockout this Saturday night against the big seven foot Russian Valuev, who punches a lot harder than most boxing fans give him credit.

Haye, 29, has said that he’s worried about the big 325 pound Valuev grabbing him, leaning on him with all his weight and more or less mugging him on the inside. That, however, isn’t how Valuev fights. Nikolay never has been one to clinch a lot and even when he does, he doesn’t lean on his opponents and try to wear them out with his weight.

Valuev briefly clinches and then gets back out to the outside where he likes to throw his telephone pole like jabs and heavy right hands and left hooks. Valuev doesn’t punch with incredible power, to be sure, but his shots are very heavy and when he’s able to land enough of them he usually is able to score a knockout. Valuev’s power is very underrated by boxing fans.

He certainly hits hard and with the accumulation of shots that he likes to throw, he’s able to score knockouts. Haye isn’t used to be hit all that much, because he tends to stay on the outside most of the time when fighting. Haye only likes to come in punching range when throwing his single power shots. The problem against Valuev, though, is that Haye will be getting hit the entire by Valuev’s heavy shots while Haye is on the outside.

Haye won’t be able to escape from getting hit with shots, even if he tries to stay well on the outside because of Valuev’s huge seven inch reach advantage. I don’t think that Haye really fully appreciates how big that Valuev is. Haye was getting tagged fairly regularly against the 6’3” Monte Barrett, who was one of Haye’s taller opponents during his seven year pro career.

If you look at Valuev’s fights in the past three years, his opponents have always had problems when on the outside. Even against the tall 6’6” Jameel McCline, who looked small next to Valuev, he was unable to escape from Valuev’s shots while on the outside. Haye is going to be very hittable in this fight no matter how much he moves or tries to stay on the outside. This wouldn’t be an issue if Haye had excellent stamina and a great chin like Evander Holyfield.

However, Haye has a very weak chin and tends to fade late after the 6th round of his fights. If Valuev can put hands on Haye and keep him under a steady flow of head snapping shots, it won’t take one big punch to take Haye out. Valuev will be able to wear Haye down with an accumulation of shots and take him out. I don’t think people really understand how small Haye is.

At 215, and barely 6’3”, Haye has no business fighting in the heavyweight division. He might be good enough to beat some heavyweights on his best night, but not a quality super heavyweight like Valuev and especially Klitschko brothers. Haye doesn’t have the chin, size or the stamina to beat those kind of fights. Haye will wear down quickly against Valuev and be taken out by the 7th round.

It’s going to leave a lot of boxing fans in shock, but I won’t be one of them because I could see in Haye’s fight against Barrett that he didn’t have the size or the chin to be a top fighter in the heavyweight division.

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