By Chris Williams: On November 7th, British heavyweight David Haye (22-1, 21 KO’s) will finally get his chance to stop talking and start fighting when he enters the ring against the 7’2″ 320 pound WBA heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev (50-1, 34 KO”s) for a title fight that will be held in Germany. This is a fight that boils down to Haye’s fast hand speed and power vs. Valuev’s monstrous size and clubbing shots.

Other than size, this isn’t a fight that Valuev holds many advantages. He’s getting old at 35, and looks to be at least five years older than that. Valuev’s limited mobility, never good to begin with, has dropped off even more in the past couple of years along with his work rate.

Valuev looked horrible in his last fight, a 12 round majority decision win over 46-year-old Evander Holyfield in December. Holyfield showed how to beat Valuev by moving a lot and using in and out attacks. Valuev hardly did much other than jabbing in the fight, because he was too slow to land all that often when Holyfield would come in to throw his shots.

Holyfield didn’t look good either, as his work rate was poor. However, even with the limited amount of punches he did throw, it was more than enough to cause Valuev tons of problems. Haye will obviously be using the same safety first type of approach that Holyfield employed in his fight with Valuev. Forget about Haye’s boasts about being an exciting heavyweight.

He’ll play it safe against Valuev and only open up with his heavy artillery if he’s absolutely certain that Valuev has little chance of landing one of his clubbing shots. Valuev doesn’t hit all that hard, but then again, Haye doesn’t take shots very well and hasn’t really been tested at the heavyweight level as of yet. Valuev will have to find a way to use his size against Haye.

Jabbing will help somewhat, but Valuev is going to have to try and cut off real estate and force Haye to fight him. Haye is going to be moving on the outside trying to pick his spots, so Valuev is going to need to try and back Haye to the ropes where he is forced to fight him.

That might not be easy because Valuev moves so slowly which should make it easy for Haye to move around him. However, Valuev still may have a chance if Haye starts getting overconfident later in the fight. Haye may find it so easy to hit Valuev that he could make the mistake of standing in front of Valuev long enough for the Russian to land one of his big clubbing right hands.

All it will take is one, because of Haye’s glass chin. If Valuev can hurt him, Haye may not be able to make it out of the ring without the fight being stopped. Valuev is a good finisher once he has his opponents hurt and it’s plausible that he could club a hurt Haye into submission. It’s doubtful but possible.

Haye, 28, has talked up a storm since moving to the heavyweight division in November, but as of now all he’s done is fight Monte Barrett, whom he stopped in the 5th round. The fight seems like ages ago now. Haye could have had fights against both Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko, having talked his way into both fights without doing much in the heavyweight division. However, Haye first backed out on Wladimir, claiming a back injury and then backed out on a fight with Vitali Klitschko when Haye found a better deal with the 35-year-old Valuev.

Haye doesn’t seem at all reliable at this point, and his reputation has taken a hit with many boxing fans because of the two failed fights. The constant talking without backing it up in the ring has caused more than a few fans to turn away from Haye.

And despite finally signing for a fight with Valuev, Haye is now perceived by some boxing writers and fans as being unreliable and a cherry picker. Although you really can’t blame Haye one bit for taking the fight with Valuev. After all, Haye was insane to try to fight either of the Klitschko brothers without the experience needed to give him a better chance at winning.