By Adam Fillingham: On the phone this week on Boxing on Setanta was David Haye. He was on the show mainly to promote his next fight against world heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitchko. Now I must say I will give him 10/10 for confidence as he showed a lot of it in the interview. His main talking point though was the contract that was offered to him calling it ‘a joke’ and that the klitchkos have the ‘ wrong mentality’.
Now I am a big David Haye fan but could this 3 fight contract be a blessing in disguise. Here are some of the reasons I think this:
David Haye’s chin isn’t the most sturdy of chins for a cruiserweight but when he goes up against a puncher like Wladimir its going to be a real test of his defencive capabilities. We have to remember that he was knocked down by Jean Marc Mormeck and Carl Thompson (who went on to make Haye’s only defeat) both are reasonably powerful, but they are no where near of what power Klitchko has.
Next is David Haye’s lack of natural size at least in comparison to the Klitchkos. Haye will most likely weigh in between the 210 and 220 pound mark but no heavier than that to keep his speed. Wladimir though will be weighing in between 240 and 245 pounds which means Haye will be giving up around 30 pounds to Wladimir. And that’s just the weight! He will also be giving up 3.5 inches in height ( Haye-6ft 3in Klitchko-6ft 6.5 in). There is also the factor in reach as Wladimir will have a 3 inch reach advantage over Haye.
Haye isn’t going to have the home crowd behind him in this fight as it will be at the Veltins Arena, Gelsenkirchen in Germany where the Klitchkos are based and with a string of ‘dodgy’ hometown decisions in recent times I think Haye could struggle if it goes the distance. Haye even said himself he will have to not win but ‘rip the belt away’.
My final point will be his lack of experience at heavyweight level. After only 2 fights at heavyweight his first coming against the unknown heavweight Tomasz Bonin ( although having a good record (37-1-0) he was only a ‘b class’ fighter) and his second against Monte Barrett ( a top 20 heavyweight 34-6-0) in a WBC title eliminator. Haye did absolutely demolish both of them and showed his class. Now I would be more confident in Haye if he had faced another two or three top twenty heavyweights first e.g. Chris Arreola, Alexander Povetkin, Kevin Johnson or Alexander Dimitrenko.
I do think that Haye may need this rematch clause due to all of the above reasons but here are some of the reasons I think the Klitchkos have put this contract together:
David Haye’s speed is immence and probably the fastest heavyweight (of any note) in the division. With this he carries a punch that has knocked out 21 out of 22 of his opponents which is a high 91.3% KO success rate, to Wladimir’s still high 83.64%. This though we must remember for Haye those knock outs (apart from two) were against cruiserweights. Haye though has a 100% KO ratio against heavyweights.
The second reason i think the Klitchkos are ‘scared’ is that Wladimir has lost three times. Now that may not seem all that bad as he has had fifty five contests. He has though been knocked clean out in all three and this will be a worry for them as Haye has frerocious power. With a dodgy chin and Haye’s power this could be a recipe for disaster.
Haye will also have most of the fans backing due to the lack of entertainment in Wladimir’s recent fights and the great entertainment in David’s. I think most fans out of eastern Europe will prefer to see Haye as champ rather than Wlad. Wlad sits behind his jab all the way through the fight and although this tactic helps him win fights it isn’t helping him win fans.
So to finish off I will say that the Haye/Wladimir Klitchko fight is a 50/50 one. I cant even start to think of a prediction of who will win this one. I know there are a lot of Haye haters out there that don’t believe he yet deserves a world title shot but think about this. Would the Klitchkos have imposed this contract if they weren’t at all scared? We will find out on June 20th.
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