By William Mackay: British heavyweight David Haye (22-1, 21 KO’s) unleashed his dogs of war earlier today, calling World Boxing Association heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev “Ugly.” Haye, 28, has a scheduled fight with the 36-year-old Valuev on November 7th, in Nuremberg, Germany, that is, if Haye doesn’t back out for one reason or another.
It’s strange that Haye would decide upon insulting Valuev’s looks because boxing, after all, isn’t a beauty contest. However, Haye, likes to get under his opponent’s skin, anger them so that he can put them off their game and get an extra edge. Haye’s insults also serve the purpose of promoting the fight.
With Valuev, Haye perhaps detected an insecurity coming from the giant about his appearance and decided to go right for that area with his insults. “He [Valuev] is the ugliest person I have ever seen,” Haye said to Bild, a German News organization. Valuev has mostly taken the insults without speaking up.
However, it appears that Haye is starting to get to the Big Russian because he is now promising to take Haye apart once they get into the ring. With still two long months to go before the fight, one wonders what state Valuev will be in by the time the fight takes place in November.
Haye appears to be just getting warmed up with his insults towards the 7-foot Valuev, further commentating “For a human being to look like him [Valuev] is really shocking.”
Valuev is coming off a controversial 12 round majority decision win over 46-year-old Evander Holyfield in December 2008, in a fight that took place in Switzerland. Many people felt that Holyfield did enough to get the win. Valuev will have to fight better than that if he wants to keep his title against the blazing fast Haye. On the surface, it appears that Valuev is over-matched against the powerful Haye and out of his league.
Besides being eight years younger than Valuev at 28, Haye has much better foot quickness and defensive skills. However, Valuev has more experience at the heavyweight level, and, of course, the size advantage against the 6’3” Haye. Indeed, the 320 pound Valuev will likely outweigh the 215 pound Haye by over a 100 pounds in this fight. Whether that translates into a victory for Valuev remains to be seen.
—
British Boxing Board Order McDermott/Fury Rematch
For what it’s worth, the British Boxing Board of Control has reportedly ordered a rematch between unbeaten Tyson Fury (8-0, 7 KO’s) and Big John McDermott after an appeal was made by the promoter of McDermott that the fight be looked into and the decision, a controversial 10 round decision given to Fury, be overturned. The decision wasn’t expected to reversed, but the fact that the British Boxing Board has ordered a rematch is at last a partial victory for McDermott’s promoter.
However, there was probably going to be a rematch anyway because Fury wants to clear the air and win the fight without controversy, so the decision by the British Boxing Board is more of a formality than anything that is going to bring about changes. The fight was scored 98-92 by referee/judge Terry O’Conner. The rematch will take place in December 2009.
The bout was a difficult to one to score because McDermott did most of his good work in the first half of the fight. In the later rounds, McDermott appeared to tire, throwing less punches and turning his back on Fury on two occasions. Fury landed more punches in each round, whereas McDermott would land the cleaner shots.
One of the things that may have hindered McDermott was that he only landed two to three good punches per round and was unable to fight at a steady pace in each of the rounds. McDermott fought well in the first half of each round, but would tire out in the second half of the round. McDermott would then resort to smothering Fury on the inside, wrestling him and not working effectively.
Comments are closed.