By Scott Gilfoid: For what it’s worth, World Boxing Council super middleweight champion Carl Froch (25-0, 20 KOs) feels that fellow British fighter David Haye (22-1, 21 KOs) will not only beat IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (52-3, 46 KOs) on June 20th, but will knock him out as well in their fight at the Veltins Arena, in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.
In an article from Setanta Sports, Froch, 31, says “I’m Britain’s only World Champion though I think next month David will knock out Wladimir Klitschko, who is frightened of his own shadow.”
Froch, of course, is referring to Wladimir’s tendency to use his jab and box smartly from the outside rather than to stand and trade with his much shorter opponents. It’s hard to really fault Klitschko for using his long reach and excellent jab, because at 6’7″ 244, it would be foolish for Wladimir to give up his height just so that Haye, 28, would have a chance to land his shorter bombs.
Klitschko uses clinches expertly to tie up shorter fighters like Haye when they stray too close to him. This is something that has been taught to Wladimir by his trainer Emanuel Steward, the same trainer that honed the great Lennox Lewis’ boxing skills and made him nearly unbeatable near the end of his career.
Steward is an expert at teaching big heavyweights how to use their size, and unfortunately for shorter-armed heavyweights like Haye, it works almost too good because Lewis and now Klitschko, were able to hold onto their titles for a long period of time using the training that Steward has given them.
Froch sees it as either him or Haye to be the ones that will take over the status as Britain’s number #1 fighter now that Ricky Hatton has been beaten recently. However, I think Froch is kidding himself about this, because he was incredibly lucky to beat Jermain Taylor, one of the flawed super middleweights in the division, by a 12th round knockout in April 2008.
Taylor is clearly not in the class of Andre Ward, Andre Dirrell, Mikkel Kessler or Lucian Bute, yet Taylor was well ahead in the cards of his fight with Froch at the time that Carl came on and got the stoppage. Clearly, if Froch is struggling badly against a flawed fighter like Taylor who had lost two out of his last three fights going into his bout with Froch, then I don’t like Froch’s chances at finding any more success at super middleweight in the future unless he takes it easy and avoids the top super middleweights in the division.
Froch may be able to compete with Haye for being the number #1 fighter in terms of being able to beat British fighters, but not world class opponents. The same goes for Haye, who has beaten two low level heavyweights in Tomas Bonin and Monte Barrett and didn’t look all that good in the Barrett fight as far as I’m concerned.
Haye is stepping out of his class in taking the fight against Klitschko, and will likely be exposed for his lack of experience at the world level. History has shown us when a fighter steps up from mediocre opponents to talented ones like the Klitschko brothers, they tend to get slapped down viciously.
It’s a reminder about moving too quickly without doing the groundwork ahead of time. This is why most boxers move in small incremental levels rather than huge leaps like Haye is doing by fighting Klitschko. Before fighting Wladimir Klitschko, Haye should prove that he’s the best heavyweight in Britain by fighting Tyson Fury or David Price before moving up to the big leagues.
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