Haye: I’ve beaten bigger guys than Wladimir, I’m taking him out early

By Boxing News - 07/02/2011 - Comments

By William Mackay: Armed with past victories over huge heavyweights Nikolay Valuev and Audley Harrison, WBA heavyweight champion David Haye is confident that he’ll be more than a match for the 6’6” IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko on Saturday night at the Imtech Arena in Hamburg, Germany. Haye says he’s been in with bigger guys than Wladimir and will be ready to stop him when he tries to throw his jabs.

“He genuinely thinks he can win this fight,” Haye said to espn.co.uk. “But he’s wrong. The plan from day one has always been to take away his asset, to take away his jab. I’ve beaten bigger guys than him before and I’ve shown I can stick to a game plan and that is what’s going to happen tonight.”

Haye’s trainer Adam Booth has come up with a plan to take away Wladimir’s jab. You can kind of guess what it’s going to be in looking at one of Booth’s other fighters British and Commonwealth super middleweight champion George Groves, who used a lot of movement with occasional quick attacks in beating 2008 Olympic gold medalist James DeGale recently. That win gave Booth and Haye a lot of pride, because they manage Groves and he’s one of their fighters with Hayemaker Promotions. The strategy worked well against the plodding DeGale.

However, DeGale didn’t have a great jab or huge power like Wladimir. He also was about the same size as Groves and didn’t out-weigh him by 30 pounds the way that Wladimir does with Haye. It’s unclear whether Booth’s one size fits all strategy will work for Haye against Wladimir. The movement could work against Haye because he’ll get tired at some point if he can’t get Wladimir out of there. It’s easier to be the pressure fighter rather than the guy that’s doing all the moving.

Wins over Harrison and Valuev might not mean that Haye can do the same thing with Wladimir. It’s possible, because Haye was able to keep from getting hit by those guys. But Wladimir has got such long arms and he’s not afraid to throw punches. Harrison looked like he was about to have a nervous breakdown in the ring, because he wanted no part of throwing any punches. That was too easy for Haye, and not a fight where you can really give Haye much credit for winning. Harrison would have lost to pretty much any heavyweight on that night with the way he fought.



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