By William Mackay: Yesterday at the London press conference, a stung looking Wladimir Klitschko tried to retaliate against David Haye’s verbal barbs by saying that “He [Haye] Will Have a Pizza Face After 12 rounds,” meaning that Wladimir intends on jabbing Haye over and over again for 12 long rounds before the Ukrainian attempts for a knockout in the 12th. I don’t know whether Wladimir was aware of what he was saying or not, but what he was describing was the exact reason why he’s so disliked by many boxing fans.
Wladimir has one of the best left hooks and right hands in the business, yet he’s content to jab away at his opponents for long stretches in his fights and only let’s loose with some big right hands when he sees that his opponent is tiring or hurt from the jabs.
This is exactly what Haye pointed out in the first press conference between them last week when he said that all that Wladimir does is jab, jab and jab, and throw his right hand when his out of shape opponents are about to fall down from fatigue.
By throwing only jabs, Wladimir will be doing the exact thing that has turned legions of potential boxing fans away from being a fan of his. With Wladimir, it isn’t as if he doesn’t have a choice whether to throw power punches or fight in a defensive safety first manner, because he has power shots that are even better than Haye’s tools.
However, Wladimir chooses to ignore his weapons and uses them as if they’re roadside flares to use in an emergency situation only. Much of the time, Wladimir uses his jab and looks very average as a fighter. It’s no wonder then that Haye feels confident that he can beat him.
Haye throws meaningful punches with every shot and is looking to take his opponents’ heads of at all times. He doesn’t fight in a minimalist way like Wladimir and believes in using his offensive weapons rather than storing them away for emergencies.
Wladimir may need to rethink his sound bites ahead of time for the next press conference because he seems like he’s just winging comments without much thought into what he’s saying. There’s no doubt that his plan is to use his jab and try to create distance between him and Haye, but if Wladimir is trying to score points against Haye and disarm his arguments about him being a safety first fighter, the last thing that Wladimir needs to be saying is that he intends on making Haye suffer for 12 rounds.
Comments are closed.