Steward: Haye thinks he’s going to beat Wladimir with speed

By Boxing News - 07/02/2011 - Comments

By Sean McDaniel: Commenting on WBA heavyweight champion David Haye (25-1, 23 KO’s ) coming into Saturday’s fight against IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (55-3, 49 Ko’s) weighing 212 lbs, Emanuel Steward, the trainer for Wladimir, said that Haye thinks he’s going to beat Wladimir with speed. Steward says that Haye is counting on him being light giving him an advantage in being able to get around the ring and land shots.

Steward sees Wladimir having all the other advantages in this fight – experience, size, reach, and better opposition. However, Steward thinks Wladimir’s power is better than Haye’s and believes that his speed is going to be a real surprise to Haye, who has been talking about Wladimir being slow and robotic.

In an interview at eastsideboxing.com’s On the Ropes Boxing Radio, Steward said “Fans are going to be surprised that Wladimir’s going to have faster speed than Haye. Once you take away a guy’s only asset where he thinks he has an advantage at, he has a problem and that’s what we’ve been preparing for much like we did for the fight with [Sultan] Ibragimov, and the fight with Eddie Chambers. He will not have the advantage in speed, he definitely doesn’t have the advantage in size, he doesn’t have the advantage in experience in super fights, and as far as punching power. He punches good with [Enzo] Maccarnelli who was knocked out by Wladimir’s sparring partner Ola Afolabi.”

Steward is dead on correct about Wladimir’s speed. I think Wladimir is going to surprise a lot of people by at least being equal to Haye. I don’t see him being faster than Haye, but fast enough to match Haye and prevent Haye from being able to land his pot shots. Wladimir is a defensive fighter now with the things that he’s learned from Steward, and he’ll do well against Haye’s pot shot attacks. But where Wladimir is going to surprise fans is with his speed.

People forget how fast his hands are, because he usually is comfortable jabbing his opponents. But his right hand and left hook are fast and lethal weapons. Haye is going to find out how fast Wladimr is early in the fight and is going to be frustrated when he starts getting tagged by the big 6’6” Ukrainian.



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