Audley thinks Haye can beat Joshua

By Boxing News - 09/18/2015 - Comments

haye67By Scott Gilfoid: 2000 Olympic super heavyweight gold medalist Audley Harrison believes that former two division world champion David Haye has what it takes to potentially beat undefeated #2 WBC and 2012 Olympic gold medalist Anthony Joshua (14-0, 14 KOs) to keep him from winning a world title.

Audley sees the 34-year-old Haye’s speed and punching power being a real problem for the 6’6” Joshua when/if they get around to fighting each other. Audley thinks that Haye needs several tune-up fights before he faces the 25-year-old Joshua, and he thinks next year would be an excellent time for the fight to take place.

“One fighter who could stop Anthony Joshua’s march to the top is David Haye,” Audley said to audleyharrison.com. “If anyone can derail AJ, I truly believe Haye has the experience, hunger and motivation to do so. He has spent most of his career fighting bigger, stronger opponents.”

Haye has fought a couple of bigger opponents in his career in his fights against Nikolay Valuev and Wladimir Klitschko, neither of which he looked good against. Haye’s 12 round decision win over Valuev in 2009 was a controversial one with many boxing fans believing that Haye should have lost the fight.

I have Valuev winning the fight by a narrow margin. Haye was barely throwing any punches at all in the fight, and he was outworked in virtually every round by the big 7-foot Russian fighter. In Haye’s loss to Wladimir in 2011, Haye couldn’t handle Wladimir’s jab, movement and clinching.

Wladimir didn’t throw many power punches in the fight because he appeared to be afraid of getting countered by Haye, but he did a good job of using movement and holding to shut him down completely. The 6’6”, 243lb Wladimir’s size advantage proved to be too much for Haye in that fight.

“I believe Joshua vs. Haye would be a big as they come, and Haye’s speed, power and experience could be the difference if it happens next year,” Audley said.

I think Joshua could be in trouble if he tried to stand in front of Haye and trade shots like he’s been doing against his other opponents since he turned pro in 2014. Haye does really well against fighters that stand in front of him and try and beat him by slugging it out.

Unless Joshua has a great chin, I don’t think he’ll win this fight if he decides to fight Haye in a traditional battle. The thing is I don’t think Joshua can beat Haye by using movement, because Joshua has a big bodybuilder type of physique in the Mike “Hercules” Weaver mold, and there’s no way on Earth that Joshua will be able to do much movement at all.

Perhaps that’s why he doesn’t even try. He’s got too much of a body builder type of physique for him to beat a speedy guy like Haye.

“My advice to Haye would be – have a few warm-ups to shake off the ring rust and don’t let ‘Fast Eddie’ tempt you into a showdown until you’re ready!” Audley said.

Haye doesn’t need to worry about Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn trying to rush a fight against him with Joshua, because Hearn has already said that he’s not interested in making that fight right now. He wants to have Joshua fight Dillian Whyte next on December 12th in London, and then after that fight EBU heavyweight champion Erkan Teper for the EBU title if Joshua gets by Whyte.

If Joshua defeats Whyte and Teper, then Hearn will look to have him fight for a world title against either WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder of Klitschko. Win or lose, Joshua will likely be matched against Haye soon after that because Hearn will want to take advantage of the money and great interest the British boxing fans would have in that fight.

Haye would be a big problem for Joshua because he’s slow hands and he stands directly in front of his opponents. There’s no real finesse in Joshua’s game at all. He just stands there straight up throwing combinations hoping one of the shots hurts his opponent for him to jump on them and finish them off. Haye has really good head movement, and will make it hard for Joshua to land anything. At the same time, Haye will be taking advantage of all of Joshua’s missed punches by nailing him with bombs again and again until he drops for the 10 count.



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