By William Mackay: Former featherweight champion Barry McGuigan is picking WBA heavyweight champion David Haye to stop IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko this Saturday night. McGuigan believes that Wladimir has never been in with a puncher that hits as hard as Haye before and sees it as only a matter of time before Haye lands one of his big shots on the chin of Wladimir to take him out.

In an interview at the BBC Sport, McGuigan said “I am absolutely convinced David Haye will knockout Wladimir Klitschko and bring back ¾ of the heavyweight titles. Wladimir has been trained by Emanuel Steward, but he’s been knocked down 12 times by lesser punchers than Haye. At some point Haye is going to connect on Wladimir’s chin and the fight will be over.”

McGuigan seems to have forgot that Wladimir has faced Corrie Sanders, Lamon Brewster, Samuel Peter and Ross Puritty during his career. Those guys appear to punch as hard – if not harder – than Haye does, and those guys were big punchers with both hands, unlike Haye, who is more of a guy that can only punch good with his right.

Lost in all of this is the fact that Wladimir can punch hard as well with both his left hook and right hand. What happens if Wladimir connects with one of his short and powerful left hooks or straight right hands on the chin of Haye? Wladimir may not use his left hook nearly as much as he used to earlier in his career, but he really hasn’t had to because he’s been able to dominate with his excellent jab alone.

But if Haye forces Wladimir into a war, we may see Wladimir dusting off his left hook and right hand and using them both much more than he’s had to in years. Can Haye take Wladimir’s best shots and keep coming? I don’t know. Wladimir punches harder than cruiserweight Carl Thompson and with either hand and we saw what Thompson was able to do to Haye once he started connecting in their fight in 2004.