By Jim Dower: IBF heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko looked absolutely traumatized last week in his press conference with David Haye after the former cruiserweight champion arrived with a t-shirt depicting the severed heads of Wladimir and his brother Vitali being held up in each of Haye’s hands. However, it wasn’t just the t-shirt that had Wladimir looking so up, it was the confidence and the things that Haye was saying to him that had Wladimir looking as if he was on the verge of tears when he was speaking the German press.
Haye went on the criticize Wladimir’s fighting style, saying “I know what Wladimir’s all about. I’ve seen him fight a dozen times and I’m not impressed. Jab, jab, jab and grab. That’s all he does.”
Wladimir looked totally upset and at a loss how to respond to it all. He looked like he needed help up there on stage next to Haye, and there wasn’t anyone that could come to his rescue because he was up there on his own. None of this has been lost on Haye, who now seems to be aware that Wladimir looks afraid of him and he’s enjoying every minute of it.
The question now is what can Wladimir do to try and overcome Haye’s intimidation factor? I personally can’t think of anything, because when someone’s afraid of a person it usually stays that way until they face them down in some way.
Short of Wladimir tagging Haye with a big left hook on stage next time out, Wladimir’s just going to have to deal with the fear until he has a chance to test whether his fears are groundless or not on June 20th. However, it’s never a good thing to be afraid of an opponent, because it often causes a fighter to perform much below their ability.
I haven’t see Wladimir look so psyched out since his fight with Corrie Sanders six years ago in 2003. Before that fight, Wladimir looked intimidated by Corrie in the pre-fight press conferences. When they fight did step in the ring, Sanders quickly destroyed Wladimir, knocking him down three times in the process of stopping in the 2nd round.
Now, six years later it looks as if we’re on course for another repeat of that fight. Haye may not be quite as tall as the 6’4” Sanders or as powerful, but he does have much better hand speed. The hand speed, the power the intimidation factor could be more than what Haye needs to get the victory over Wladimir.
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