By Chris Williams: With all the taunting and trash talking that David Haye has made towards World Boxing Association heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev in the lead up to their November 7th fight in Nuremburg, Germany, Haye is going to really have a lot of egg on his face should he lose to the 36-year-old Valuev. Haye might not know this or not, but his trash talking has put a lot of pressure on him to not only get the win but to do it in an impressive manner.

To perform in less than a dominating manner against Valuev – or even shudder the thought that Haye should lose – would be a critical blow for his heavyweight boxing career. It wouldn’t finish him as a fighter, because Haye could always fall back on the cruiserweight division if push came to shove, but it would be a huge blow for Haye’s heavyweight hopes of winning a title.

If Haye can’t beat the likes of the aging, badly slowed seven foot Valuev, then you got to figure that Haye has no chance of beating either of the Klitschko brothers. Haye might stubbornly persist at the heavyweight level even if he loses to Valuev knowing that he can get another good payday against one or possibly both the Klitschko brothers, but after that, Haye’s days as a heavyweight contender will be limited unless he can beat one of the champions.

There’s always the option of Haye fighting someone like heavyweight newcomer Tomasz Adamek, but if Haye is beaten by Valuev or the Klitschko brothers, there might not be enough left of Haye for him to beat the hard hitting Adamek.

Haye has taken the task of coming across as the bad guy in his fight with the champion Valuev and like usual, Haye has gone a bit over board with his role to try and pump up interest in the fight. Instead of focusing entirely on the ability of Valuev, Haye has gone into the area of beauty, insulting Valuev’s looks and his smell. It’s actually kind of cruel what Haye has been doing because Valuev isn’t exactly a normal looking fighter because of his giant size.

Haye really didn’t need to go to this level to get people interested in the fight, as he just seems hurtful in the things that he’s been saying about the way that Valuev looks. Haye claims that he’s doing it to make Valuev mad so that he will fight with anger instead of reason. However, that seems strange coming from a knockout artist.

Any fighter that steps in the ring with Haye is going to be naturally afraid to get hit by him because of his big power and it seems somewhat bizarre to think that Haye believes that he can anger an opponent enough to the point where they will want to mix it up with him. I don’t see it as clear thinking from Haye. He either is underestimating how other people see him or he’s just plain thick headed and slow.

No one, least of all the light hitting Valuev, is going to get angry enough to try and punch with a fighter like Haye who has Tyson like speed and power. That would be insane. As such, Haye is just pouring it on for no reason against Valuev, saying needless things about his looks, which he can never change in any real way, and putting added pressure on himself to have to win and win impressively to avoid the fallout from his trash talking.