By Chris Williams: In looking over several of David Haye’s most recent fights, I’ve noticed that he tends to fight very cautiously as if he’s afraid to mix it and get hit hard. I’ve seen the same from Wladimir Klitschko as well, but not nearly to the level that Haye seems to try and avoid getting hit in his fights.
Haye, though, is going to have to take some risks if he plans on winning his fight with Klitschko on June 20th at the Veltins Arena, in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. Haye can’t continue to fight passively, staying on the outside and looking to land an occasional bomb against a fighter the size of 6’7″ Wladimir, because Haye will be riddled to pieces if he doesn’t take more risks.
In looking at Haye’s recent fights against Giacobbe Fragomeni, Jean Marc Mormeck, Enzo Maccarinelli at cruiserweight and against 38-year-old journeyman Monte Barrett, Haye was able to pot shot from the outside because of his bigger size than most of them.
Maccarinelli was the exception, as he had an inch height advantage over Haye at 6’4″ compared to Haye’s 6’3″. However, Maccarinelli foolishly gave up his height when he came in close trying to throw hooks to the body. Fragomeni was only 5’9″ and Mormeck a smallish 5’11”, which meant that Haye was like a giant compared to them and could fight on the outside picking his moments to cautiously throw a bomb or two.
Unfortunately for Haye, that just won’t fly against the much taller Wladimir, who will be out of range for Haye’s wild attempts at landing from the outside. And when Haye comes charging forward to throw his customary pot shot, Wladimir will either hit him before he gets in range, back up and avoid the shot or block the punch and immediately grab Haye.
Everything that Haye has learned in the past will have to be scrapped for this fight, because he can’t fight like he did before against a much taller fighter like Wladimir. Of course, landing pot shots against smallish, limited cruiserweights worked well for Haye during his time in that division, but as a heavyweight Haye is going to have to take many more chances than he did before if he wants to win.
It’s scary to think that a fighter that is even smaller than Monte Barrett is being put in with a fighter like Klitschko, because I can’t see how Haye can compete with his lack of size. Maybe if Wladimir liked to fight in close like Maccarinelli it would give Haye a greater chance of winning because of his better hand speed, but that’s not the case in this fight.
This is going to be a long range bombardment type of fight with Haye not having the armament to reach his target. Perhaps for this reason Haye is going to have to go to the extreme and try to go after Klitschko in fast charges where Haye tries to fly through Wladimir’s punches to get in close and then try to get in a flurry before Wladimir can grab him in a clinch.
If Haye can do that, he might just have a chance at beating Klitschko. However, Haye is going to have to fight much more aggressively than he’s done against Fragomeni, Mormeck and Maccarinelli, because the fighter that went up against them looked like a timid rabbit, and would be drilled into the canvas by Wladimir.
Haye can’t lunge from the outside, that’s not an option for him. He’s too short and doesn’t extend his arms well enough to land from a distance. Haye is going to have to charge like the Calvary to get in close enough to get his shots off, and hopefully not get clipped on the way in.
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