Holyfield: Haye can beat Wladimir

By Boxing News - 06/30/2011 - Comments

Image: Holyfield: Haye can beat WladimirBy Jim Dower: Former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield is giving WBA heavyweight champion David Haye a good chance of beating IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko. Holyfield, who wants to fight the winner of the fight, feels that Wladimir can’t fight well on the inside, and thinks this is an area that Holyfield can exploit.

Holyfield says that for Haye to win he’s got to do more than just throw pot shots like he did in his win over Nikolay Valuev in 2009. Haye thinks that the way to beat Wladimir is with combinations and by staying in close to him.

In an article at the dailymail.co.uk, Holyfield said this “He [Haye] has to make his hand speed dictate the fight. It won’t be enough to dart in and out for one pot shot here and there, the way he did against Valuev.”

Holyfield goes on to say that Haye has to slip Wladimir’s jab and stay on the inside long enough to land some combinations to the head and body. Holyfield thinks Haye’s strategy will depend on whether the referee is allowing Wladimir to hold or not. It’s likely that Wladimir will be holding as much as he usually does without being penalized.

Holyfield’s strategy for Haye seems to ignore that Wladimir can punch with respectable power in close. He has a short left hook that he likes to throw and in his last fight against Samuel Peter, Wladimir unveiled an uppercut that he used on a number of occasions. Wladimir has been seeing working on his uppercuts with trainer Emanuel Steward. We may be seeing a lot better inside fighting than what Holyfield remembers from him.



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