By Chris Williams: After being taunted by British heavyweight for the past couple of weeks about his looks, World Boxing Association heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev will be looking for some payback in the ring when he meets up with Haye, 28, on November 7th, in Berlin, Germany. If the big seven foot three hundred and twenty pound Valuev thought that Haye was going to play nice when leading up to the fight, he must have been sadly mistaken because Haye has been teasing Valuev almost endlessly while promoting the fight.

Obviously, this is the showman in Haye that does this. He would never say such things if it weren’t to get boxing fans excited about this fight. However, I don’t think Valuev sees it that way. He seems to be quite annoyed with Haye and looks as if he wants to tear him apart. Who knows? Maybe this is what Haye wants as well. Valuev could be vulnerable if he goes out quickly trying to slug with Haye.

There is a saying, ‘Don’t slug with a slugger,” and that could apply as a piece of advice for Valuev to use come November 7th. However, on the flipside, there’s also a saying, ‘Don’t wake a sleeping giant.’ That’s something that Haye may have done by riling Value with his teasing. Valuev might have a reputation for being a light hitter with slow hand speed, but he more often than not, has been able to take out his smaller opponents during his career.

For anyone who’s seen Valuev’s bout against Monte Barrett, in which Valuev knocked Barrett across the ring after clubbing him with a tremendous right hand, they can attest to Valuev having good power. Valuev has never fought angry before, at least as far as I can see in his past fights. Against Haye, Valuev will be looking to even the score by taking his anger out on Haye.

This isn’t just a fighter who is trying to protect his WBA title. Valuev will be looking to knock Haye’s block off for his taunts about his physical appearance. Haye took a page out of the playbook that Ali used in his fights against Joe Frazier where Ali teased Frazier unmercifully about his appearance.

The teasing worked as far as selling tickets, but it also work in reverse by making Frazier angry and wanting to take out his aggression in the ring against Ali. Those series of fights ended up being the hardest ones of Ali’s career and the ones where he took an enormous amount of punishment.

Maybe Haye knows what he’s doing by trying to get Valuev all heated up, but I hope Haye has the chin to take Valuev’s shots once he starts opening up. Haye is going to get hit sooner or later by Valuev, that’s a given. Haye won’t have the size and reach to avoid that from happening. Haye will be able to get in and out for awhile without taking hits, but Valuev is going to be able to connect due to his huge size and reach alone.