By Chris Williams: British heavyweight contender David Haye (22-1, 21 KO’s) is expecting his opponent World Boxing Association heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev to (50-1, 34 KO’s) to try and use his big size on him next month in their bout on November 7th, in Nuremberg, Germany. “I expect him to come out there and really try to assert his size on me, lean on me and use his very effective jab, Haye says.

That’s not news for most people, because the 36-year-old Valuev always tries to use his size against his opponents. He’d be crazy not to. The real question is whether Haye can avoid Valuev’s bear-like shots when he comes in trying to land his power shots. Haye, a former WBA/WBC/WBO cruiserweight champion, is usually bigger than his opponents. However, now that Haye has moved out of the cruiserweight division, he’s now finding himself the smaller guy.

In his last fight a year ago against journeyman Monte Barrett, Haye was even smaller than Barrett. That’s not good for a fighter who says he’s going to be saving the heavyweight division. Quickness is one thing, but without the size needed, Haye might end up coming short even against a limited heavyweight like Valuev. All it takes is one big clubbing shot from the big giant Valuev and Haye, with his glass jaw, might kiss the canvas.

Haye: “So I expect him to come out there using those ramrod jabs, soften me up and throwing his trademark right upper cut and get me out of there.” Against some of his opponents, Valuev is able to soften them up with his uppercuts. However, I don’t know whether that will work against Haye. The reason is Haye will probably not stay in close with Valuev if he can help it. He knows that his chances diminish the longer he stays inside against Valuev. Haye will probably circle him from the outside all fight long and use quick attacks to get his shots in and then scurry away before Valuev has much chance to land anything. Of course, Haye will be hit by an uppercut or two during the fight but if he moves quickly in and out, he can avoid getting hit with Valuev’s biggest shots.

“I’ve got a solution to anything he throws at me,” Haye says. Let’s hope so. Haye looked awfully good against Odlanier Solis in the first minute of his fight against him in the amateur ranks. But after the first minute, Haye ran out of gas and was useless from that point on. Haye ended up eating right hand after right until the fight was mercifully stopped in the 3rd round before Solis had a chance to stretch Haye out on the canvas. Haye has got to have better stamina than that, because if he uses up all his fireworks in a round or two, he’s going to have problems against the big seven foot Valuev.

Haye plans on coming in at under 16 stone for the fight, which sounds a bit odd given that he’s facing a fighter that weighs over 300 pounds. Haye thinks that his quickness will be more important than size. Let’s hope so, because if he’s wrong, Valuev is going to be beating Haye around the ring like a rag doll. Valuev does well against opponents that are light like Haye and this could be a big mistake for Haye to come in light against a big fighter like Valuev.