Haye to fight Valuev in Nuremberg on November 7th – News

By Boxing News - 09/18/2009 - Comments

By Eric Thomas: World Boxing Association heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev (50-1, 34 KO’s) has a location for his title defense against British heavyweight David Haye (22-1, 21 KO’s) on November 7th. The fight will be taking place in Nuremberg, Germany. Valuev, 36, will be making his 2nd defense of his WBA heavyweight title against the British challenger.

Haye, a fighter who likes to get under his opponent’s skin by insulting them, has already seemed to get under Valuev’s skin. The big seven foot Russian is promising to knock Haye out on November 7th. Haye will have to overcome a huge obstacle in size in his battle against Valuev, as Haye, 6’3”, will be almost a foot shorter than Valuev and a hundred pounds lighter.

Haye is counting on his hand speed and ability to get quickly in and out of range to avoid Valuev’s big clubbing shots. However, unless Haye is able to knock Valuev out quickly in this fight, Haye is going to have to be able to take some of Valuev’s big shots.

Fighting Valuev would seem to be a much easier task for Haye than to fight one of the Klitschko brothers. Haye has been planning on fighting Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko not too long ago, but backed out on both fights. This has caused some boxing fans to feel that Haye lacks courage to take on dangerous opponents.

Valuev is a good fighter, but you probably won’t find too many people who will say that Valuev is better than the Klitschko brothers. Haye has fought only once in the past year, a 5th round stoppage against 38-year-old fringe contender Monte Barrett in November.

This was a big letdown to many boxing fans, who had thought that Haye was going to fight a top contender because he had teased and hinted about fighting a top quality fighter for his November 2008 date. And what people got was Barrett, a fighter who had lost three out of his last six fights going into his November fight against Haye. In the fight, Haye appeared to get knocked down by a left hand from Barrett in the 5th round. The British referee, however, ruled it a slip. Haye appeared to be badly hurt by either this punch or a left that Barrett landed after Haye fell down. Haye got up after the knockdown but immediately took a knee, as if he needed more time to clear his head. Barrett isn’t a big puncher and this made some people wonder whether Haye can take a hard shot.



Comments are closed.