By Jim Dower: In an interview with Sky Sports, Wladimir Klitschko’s trainer Emanuel Steward said that he wants Wladimir to get British heavyweight challenger David Haye (22-1, 21 KOs) out of there as fast as possible, saying “I want this fight over with quick.” Steward knows how dangerous Haye can be with his powerful right hand and doesn’t want to take any chances by letting him stay in the fight.
On June 20th, Klitschko, 33, will be facing arguably his toughest threat since winning the IBF heavyweight title three years ago when he faces the 28-year-old Haye at the Veltins Arena, Gelsenkirchen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. Steward wants Wladimir to work on Haye for the first five rounds, presumably with his power jab, and then take him out with left hooks and right hands.
Steward sees the fight as ending well before the 12th, and is predicting that one of them will be knocked out on June 20th. He expects that Haye will come right at Wladimir trying to score a knockout. However, Steward thinks that’s a good thing, saying “Wladimir fights at his best when fighters who come to him.”
That may or may not be true, because in Wladimir’s only three losses in his 13-year pro career, he’s been knocked out by fighters – Ross Puritty, Corrie Sanders and Lamon Brewster – who came right at him. With the exception of the Sanders bout, Wladimir did look very good up until being knocked out, but the end result was that he seemed to wear out under the heavy pressure and fold.
It wasn’t just physical either, as Wladimir looked nervous in his fights with Puritty and Brewster, appearing to be stressing out under the heavy pressure that was being put on him. In the case of the Sanders fight, Wladimir never had time to be nervous because Sanders went straight at him and quickly knocked him down three times en route to stopping him in the 2nd round in March 2003.
So if Steward says that Wladimir fights at his best when an opponent comes to him, I’m wondering if Steward is thinking about sparring sessions rather than real life boxing matches that Wladimir has had. In Wladimir’s prior defenses of his IBF/WBO heavyweight title, none of his opponents have put a lot of pressure on him.
Hasim Rahman looked timid, and so did Brewster, Calvin Brock, Tony Thompson, and Ray Austin. Sultan Ibragimov put a little pressure on Wladimir, but nothing like the kind of pressure that Puritty or Brewster put on Wladimir.
Steward realizes that Haye is a completely different fighter from the fighters that he’s fought in the recent times. You can say that again. Haye is a lot better than Thompson, Brock, Austin and Ibragimov. I don’t know that Haye hits any harder than Brewster, but given Haye has a lot better hand speed which makes him more dangerous.
The weird thing is, I doubt Haye could beat someone like Brewster, yet I give Haye an excellent chance of beating Wladimir due to the Ukrainian’s weak chin.
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