World Boxing Association/World Boxing Council cruiserweight champion David Haye (20-1, 19 KOs) has had a change of mind, today announcing that he will indeed decide to take on World Boxing Organization cruiserweight champion Enzo Maccarinelli (28-1, 21 KOs) for a unification bout on March 8th in the UK. Both Haye and Maccarinelli are knockout punchers, the type that often end their bouts in the first several rounds. Of the two, Maccarinelli has the better overall boxing skills, with the ability to box or punch depending on the circumstances in the bout. Whereas with Haye, he exclusively goes for quick knockouts every time out, ignoring important things like pacing himself and concentrating on defense.
He paid for his lack of defense and pacing in his bout with 40 year-old ex-cruiserweight champion Carl Thompson, who rallied to defeat Haye by 5th round TKO in September 2004. In that fight, Haye had pretty much had his way with Thompson, battering viciously around the ring for the first four rounds of the fight. However, when the 5th round came around, Thompson unloaded with a handful of punches to stop the physically exhausted Haye, who by that time could barely stand up. Not much has changed since then, as Haye continues to pour it on against all of his opponents, but lucky for him, the vast majority of them have been sub par fighters.
Maccarinelli, however, has the boxing skill and the ring smarts to wait Thompson out, and perhaps take him into the deep waters and drown him as Thompson did in the not too distance past. Haye, 27, is heavily muscled and tends to tire out even when he’s not punching a lot. For him, he’s going to have to try to take Maccarinelli out as fast as possible, because if not, Maccarinelli has more than enough power to take him out late.
Haye originally planned on giving up on the cruiserweight division, saying that he wanted to campaign as a heavyweight. However, Haye probably had a change of mind when they waived some big money numbers in front of his face, giving him a change of thought. As a heavyweight, it would likely be a considerable amount of time before he got a chance for a big pay, if at all, as he would have to prove that he can compete with the bigger fighters in the division.