By Sean McDaniel: Heavyweight David Haye arrived at today’s news conference in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, wearing a t-shirt with a photo of Wladimir Klitschko and Vitali’s cut off heads in each of Haye’s hands. Wladimir didn’t take the t-shirt gag too well, getting outraged over it and heatedly said “That is terrible. It’s unspeakable, it’s impudent…I want to knock him out in the 1st round.” Haye seemed to be gladdened by Wladimir’s reaction, remarking “When I beat him to bits, he will retire. Vitali will throw in the towel to save you, he will pick you off the floor.”
This obviously is nothing more than a publicity stunt on Haye’s part, but he seems to have had the added effect of getting into Wladimir’s head, throwing him off his game and psyching him out. This may or may not carry over to the actual June 20th fight in Germany, but with two more months to go before the fight, Haye has plenty of time to further work his way inside Wladimir’s head.
The ideal fallout from this would be an enraged Wladimir who instead of using his heat and reach to box from the outside, would come straight at Haye in the first round and try to slug it out with him. With Haye’s immense power in each hand, it would be the wrong move for Wladimir to take and he would very likely be knocked out in the 1st or 2nd rounds by Haye.
That’s not that Wladimir wouldn’t have his own chance of scoring an early knockout, but it would favor Haye more because of his much better accuracy with his punches and his better hand speed. His punches would arrive first, especially if Haye can get Wladimir into throwing combinations, and have a good chance of putting the weak-chinned Wladimir down for the count.
More aggressiveness from Wladimir is what Haye’s hoping for, because if Wladimir stays on the outside and fights a safety-first fight by using his long jab and left hooks, Haye will have much fewer chances to land a huge shot unless he takes chances by lunging forward with power shots.
In that case, Haye could get caught from one of Wladimir’s big left hooks on the way and taken out. Haye does better if he can get Wladimir to fight in his space where David will be able to get the maximum amount of power on his shots.
It’s surprising how easily Haye has gotten inside Wladimir’s head, because you would think with all of Wladimir’s pro fights, including his Gold Medal in the 1996 Olympics, Wladimir would be immune to these kinds of mind games. Apparently, he’s not and is seemingly going to pieces with Haye’s constant taunts.
In each of their public meetings, Haye has been able to get the better of Wladimir with taunts and seems to have him afraid when the two lock eyes. Wladimir looks afraid of Haye as if the British heavyweight is going to reach over and belt him any second.
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