Photo by Pavel “Eagle eye” Terehov – By Chris Williams: Heavyweight David Haye has recently had what could be an asset for him with former heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis (41-2-1, 32 KOs) volunteering to join his team as an adviser and sparring partner for Haye’s 2009 fight with World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko. Who better to help with figuring out Vitali then the 43-year-old Lewis, the last fighter to hand Vitali a loss, beating him by a sixth round stoppage in 2003.
As good as the win was, it was marred by controversy due to the fight being stoppage on a series of severe cuts on Vitali’s face rather than a more traditional stoppage. In addition, it was Vitali who was winning the fight at the time of the stoppage, having controlled the first four rounds, though Lewis appeared to be the stronger fighter in both the 5th and 6th rounds.
What wisdom Lewis could give to Haye, other than, say, “hey, try to hit him around the eyes, maybe you’ll get lucky like I did and stop him.” That would be about the extent of Lewis’ contribution to Haye, because there wasn’t much more that he was going in the fight than capitalizing on Vitali’s severe cuts.
Aside from that, Lewis could tell Haye to try and throw uppercuts, since Vitali seemed to be a sucker for them in the 5th and 6th rounds, and was rocked from big shots in both rounds. But that’s not something that may help Haye in this case, because Vitali rarely clinches, and appeared to be only doing so in the Lewis bout because of the extremely high pace of the fight, which Vitali had purposely set out to do to try and wear out the then 38-year-old Lewis.
Against the shorter, much faster Haye, the last thing that Vitali will probably try and do is to clinch with him. The more likely scenario is that Vitali will stay on the outside, jabbing constantly, and banging him with big left hooks and long right hands.
If Lewis plans on serving as a sparring partner for Haye, I don’t know how much use that’ll be for Haye. Lewis is 43, overweight, apparently out of shape, and probably won’t be able to spar for little more than a few rounds without tiring out badly, and serving little purpose.
Lewis’ style of fighting is completely different from that of Vitali, who fights in an Eastern European style rather than the more conventional style of Lewis. If Haye really wants to learn how to solve Vitali’s style, he needs to get some big Eastern European fighters, someone like 6’7″ Alexander Dimitrenko as a sparring partner.
Of course, Dimitrenko, a top rated fighter in the heavyweight division, would never choose to work as anyone’s sparring partner, but there are handful of large, decent fighters from Eastern Europe for Haye to choose from.
Mostly, I see Lewis as totally unneeded by Haye.
That’s not to say that Haye doesn’t need help, because he most definitely does and is in an almost unwinnable situation as of now. But Lewis isn’t the one that is going to be able to improve his lot much other than confusing him possibly with bad advice.
It is strange that Lewis would seek Haye out and volunteer to help him, because what would be the gain? Many boxing fans are of the opinion that Lewis retired in the first place to avoid having to face Vitali in a rematch, that he was drove out of the sport by Vitali. In volunteering to help Haye, it makes it seem as if Lewis wants someone else to fight his own battles for him, because Vitali has been quite vocal in his comments about still wanting a rematch with Lewis. However, Vitali’s requests for a rematch with Lewis have fallen onto deaf ears, as Lewis is content – or so he says – in his five-year retirement.
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