By Stuart Gant: The upcoming fight between the former undisputed cruiserweight champion David Haye and the current WBA heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev is an intriguing prospect and a match that could lead to huge opportunities for Haye or alternatively could end Hayes heavyweight dream.
While Valuev is a monster weighing in at around 320 pounds and standing a staggering 7ft tall he is beatable and possibly beatable by a good but not great opponent. In the heavyweight division Valuev is looked upon as the worst Heavyweight champion and justifiably so when you compare him to the Klitschko brothers. Valuev’s skills and abilities are pretty dismal and without his sheer size he wouldn’t even be a contender in the heavyweight division never mind a champion.
His record however is a little better than his boxing abilities and he has got wins against decent contenders such as Monte Barrett, Sergey Laykhovich and John Ruiz. His only loss comes against a former champion in the form of Ruslan Chageav in 2007. At the time of the fight Chageav was unbeaten and was seen as one of the best heavyweights, which is a different story now after the beating he took against Wladimir Klitschko.
Valuev’s most recent fight was the outrageously awful performance against the 46 year old Evander Holyfield which he somehow came away with a victory. I watched the fight and personally gave it to Holyfield even though he was just as poor. Holyfield is 6ft 2, an inch smaller than Haye and is now slower and less powerful than Haye.
Even though Holyfield is way past it and his work rate was poor he still caused Valuev lots of problems and made Valuev look less than average. Holyfield caused problems for Valuev and could have easily been given the decision. Valuev is a slow mover, has very poor reactions and has shocking stamina which all plays into Hayes hands and therefore you’d think Haye should have a really good chance of beating him.
Haye has a decent amount of power, can throw great combinations and has the speed to trouble any heavyweight, never mind Valuev. The main question that could turn this match around for Valuev is how fragile David Hayes chin is? Personally I don’t think it’s as fragile as many are made to believe. Hayes chin is thought to be fragile because of his loss all the way back in 2004 against Carl Thompson. If people watched this fight they know that Haye was young and for 5 rounds tried every thing in his power to knockout Thompson out but inevitably wore himself out and was a sitting duck.
Even in the Thompson fight Haye took some very big shots and stayed on his feet and tried throwing shots back. Then when Haye thought Jean-Mark Mormeck in 2007 for the WBA and WBC Cruiserweights Haye got knocked down in the 4th and took some other big shots in the fight but TKO’d Mormeck in the 7th. So, will Haye’s chin stand up against Valuev.
In my opinion Haye, with the right strategy should come through with a win whether by way of K.O or points. The issue is what will happen to Haye if he is beaten? If he is beaten by way of split decision like Holyfield I don’t think it will harm his dream of becoming champion too much and he could easily bounce back. The problem would come if Haye gets KO’d or unlikely outclassed.
Surely this would be the end of Hayes heavyweight dream. Being knocked out to the poorest champion closers many doors. If Haye can’t take Valuev’s punches he would have no chance against the Klitschko’s and many other heavyweights for that matter.
Where would a KO leave Haye then? Surely at the age of 28 and with the abilities he’s got he couldn’t retire, which I believe leaves one option and that would be to go back down to the cruiserweight division. Now if were being honest that wouldn’t be such a bad thing because Haye in my opinion still has a lot to prove at that level. He beat Jean-Marc Mormeck and Enzo Maccarineli and therefore became the undisputed cruiserweight champion. Surely after two fights it doesn’t mean you’ve dominated a division. If he did drop down a division he would have fights against the likes of Victor Ramirez and Tomasz Adamek and wins over these guys would surely help Haye’s record and reputation. With all this in mind I for one am looking forward to how the Valuev – Haye fight pans out on the 7th November.
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