David Haye wants Deontay Wilder for sparring to get ready for Tyson Fury

By Boxing News - 08/12/2013 - Comments

wilder4411By Scott Gilfoid: Unbeaten heavyweight contender Deontay Wilder (29-0, 29 KO’s) is debating whether he should take the time to fly over to the UK to work as sparring partner for former WBA heavyweight champion David Haye (26-2, 24 KO’s) to help him get ready for his September 28th fight against the big 6’9” Tyson Fury (21-0, 15 KO’s) at the Manchester Arena.

Haye reportedly wants the 6’7” Deontay to help with sparring to get him ready for Fury. The problem is if Deontay says yes to working as Haye’s sparring sessions, he’ll miss out on scouting out the September 6th fight between Seth Mitchell and Chris Arreola in Indio, California, according to RingTV.

Deontay likely wants to be able to see that fight live to study what they’re like up close. If Deontay spends weeks working as Haye’s sparring partner, he’ll miss that fight.

Deontay said to RingTV “We’re considering that [working as sparring partner for Haye]. I wouldn’t mind going to England to help David out against Tyson Fury…I went to David’s camp before when I got him ready for the [Wladimir] Klitschko fight…it will be even better this time because I’m a more seasoned professional now.”

I think Deontay would be a much different fighter than Fury. Haye’s trainer Adam Booth would have to tinker with Deontay’s fighting style to get him to fight more like Fury, because right now they’re much different fighters.

Deontay would have to stand straight up, give up his long reach by standing close to Haye, and slap with his shots the same way Fury does.

I don’t know if that would be good for Deontay’s development for him to mimic a flawed heavyweight like Fury for 3 weeks or so. I think it could actually be harmful for Deontay, because he might get stuck fighting in amateurish way that could hurt him in his future bouts.

The thing is, when you’re as talented as Deontay, and ranked as high as him, you don’t want to be working as sparring partner anymore, because it’s not a good deal.

It’s not as if Deontay will be able to go out there and wail away on the 214 lb. Haye to stop him in the 1st round of sparring. Adam Booth is probably going to have Deontay wearing huge 16 ounce gloves, and he’ll definitely have Haye wearing head protection.

Deontay won’t be able to tee off on Haye. Instead, he’ll probably be too told to slap at him the way that Fury does, and then he’ll obviously be instructed to stand real close to Haye the way that Fury does to try and fight giving up his reach.

I still don’t know why Fury does that, but I don’t think it’s a good idea for Deontay to follow his foolish mistakes.

If this was real all-out sparring where Deontay didn’t have to hide his power and mimic Fury’s slapping punches, then I could see Deontay sending Haye to the canvas in the 1st round. I imagine Deontay would then be dismissed as a sparring partner at that point, because he would have gone overboard in beating Haye. But that’s not what Deontay would be asked to do. It would be all staged stuff, where Deontay would have to play a part by copying Fury, and he’d have to keep his power under wraps so that he didn’t brain Haye in the sparring sessions.



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