By Chris Williams: WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch is predicting a knockout victory for fellow Brit David Haye when he goes up against World Boxing Association heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev on November 7th in Germany. However, this prediction is actually compared to that of the previous ones that Froch has made involving Haye in which Froch predicted that Haye would beat Wladimir Klitschko. “Valuev’s going to get knocked the spark out,’ Froch said in an interview in The Sun. “The ring might collapse when he falls over!”
That was going a bit overboard on Froch’s part because Haye has done zero as heavyweight and was very selective in choosing journeyman Monte Barrett as an opponent last year when Haye decided to move up in weight to the heavyweight division. But, in choosing Haye by a knockout over the aging 35-year-old Valuev, I think Froch has his head on straight with this one. Haye, 6’3”, will be giving up eleven inches in height against the huge 7’2” Valuev, and that’s going to be a huge problem for Haye to have to deal with.
“Haye’s got to be careful and watch what’s coming back at him.” You can say that again. Haye is a small heavyweight at 215, and used to fighting much smaller fighters. In Haye’s bout against Barrett, a light hitting heavyweight, Haye was hurt in the 5th round by a left hand from Barrett and dropped to the canvas.
The British referee ruled it a slip but many people who’ve seen the fight, including me, see the knockdown as legitimate and a blown call by the referee. The knockdown wasn’t the important part, though. It was how hurt Haye was after getting dropped. Barrett added a shot while Haye was down but it was a weak one, yet Haye was badly hurt and needed a lot of time before he could get back to his feet and resume fighting.
For Haye, this is a huge step up in class for him in facing Valuev. While might be the weakest of the heavyweight champions, he’s still probably better than any fighter that Haye has ever fought in terms of being able to give Haye a tough fight,. Haye, used to have the size advantage while fighting as a cruiserweight, will have to deal with being the much smaller man. That may be a problem for Haye. In his fight against Barrett, Haye looked smaller than him. And Barrett isn’t considered a big heavyweight.
Froch thinks that Haye will have no problem seeing Valuev’s punches because of the Russian’s lack of hand speed. That’s true, but Haye won’t be able to get out of the way of all of them and his chin will be tested. Valuev is a weak puncher there’s no question about that. However, Haye has a really weak chin and had problems taking shots from cruiserweights in the past.
Valuev obviously hits harder than the opponents that Haye has fought in the past. Froch thinks that if Haye isn’t able to knock Valuev out, he’ll have no problem winning by a decision. It’s possible, but Haye will have to use his jab if he wants to win by a decision because he’s going to be getting hit with a lot of jabs from Valuev in the fight.
Haye typically doesn’t throw a lot of jabs and is more of a pot shot fighter who throws flurries from time to time. I wouldn’t advise for Haye to throw any flurries against Valuev, because Haye might get nailed by one of Valuev’s clubbing shots and taken out. Valuev is capable of loading up with big punches from time to time and with the glass chin that Haye has, it might not take more than one big punch from the giant to finish Haye off.
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