By William Mackay: WBA heavyweight champion David Haye is convinced in his mind that IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko won’t be able to hit him on Saturday night in their unification bout. Haye not only doesn’t think that the 35-year-old Wladimir won’t be able to hit him with his power shots but that he won’t be able to land his jabs either. Now that is a sign that Haye has full of confidence and possibly a little confident in this fight.

Haye thinks that his speed and movement will keep Wladimir from being able to land a glove on him. However, if you look at Haye’s last fights at heavyweight, he was hit fairly often by John Ruiz and Monte Barrett. Haye did a good job of not getting hit a lot by Nikolay Valuev in 2009, but Valuev didn’t have the jab that Wladimir possesses or the speed.

Haye’s recent fight against Audley Harrison was an oddity, because Harrison never even really attempted to throw anything. One would hope that Haye’s immense confidence isn’t coming from these fights, because they were opponents with less talent than what he’ll be facing on Saturday. Haye sparred with huge heavyweights Deontay Wilder and David Price in getting ready for tomorrow’s fight against Klitschko.

Haye’s sparring with Price, a huge 6’8” British heavyweight, seems to have given Haye a lot of confidence that he can beat Wladimir. However, Price isn’t at the same level as Wladimir in any area, so hopefully Haye can recognize that. Just because he was able to do well against Price doesn’t mean it’s going to translate into doing the same against Wladimir.

Speaking with the dailymail.co.uk, Haye said “I do think he [Wladimir] is going to come out faster than usual, but that’s ok, because it means he’ll get knocked out quicker…What he won’t be able to handle is when I start landing my big punches but he finds he can’t hit me.”

Haye will get hit a lot in this fight. Hopefully he doesn’t go into shock if he starts getting hit more than he expected because Wladimir has a long jab and has been practicing at cutting off the ring. He may literally force Haye to fight, and if Haye can’t take Wladimir he’s going to get and we may see Haye taste the canvas himself.