By Jason Kim: For what it’s worth, World Boxing Council super middleweight champion Carl Froch is picking fellow Brit David Haye to beat WBA heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev this Saturday in Nuremburg, Germany. Froch, 32, had this to say in an interview in the the Mirror – “He [Haye] is quick and nimble enough to keep out of his [Valuev] way, and then out-hit him.”

Froch says that he’s sparred in the past with the 29-year-old Haye and came away quite impressed with Haye’s boxing ability. “He [Haye] is a really fantastic, skilful fighter. When we used to box I couldn’t lay a glove on him,” Froch says. You can take what Froch says with a grain of salt, however, because Froch is a pencil thin 168 and Haye fought at 200 pounds in the cruiserweight division.

That’s a little more than 30 pounds, so you could expect that a taller, heavier Haye would give Froch a great deal of problems. Froch isn’t fast for a super middleweight, and it’s also not surprising that Haye is much faster than him. Froch doesn’t win his fights with his speed. Instead, he relies on his ability to absorb shots and dish out punishment to win his fights.

Froch wisely comments that Haye will have problems if he gets hit hard by Valuev, saying “If David gets hit on the chin he’s going to be in serious trouble.” Haye will be giving up roughly 100 to 115 pounds against the 325 pound Valuev on Saturday night. Haye will also have to find a way to get within punching range of Valuev without getting hit too hard. There’s little question that Haye will get hit on the way in while trying to get his shots off, but the real test will be whether Haye’s sometimes weak chin will betray him again.

Valuev likely hits harder than Jean Marc Mormeck, Carl Thompson, and Lolenga Mock, three fighters that put Haye down on the canvas while Haye was fighting in the cruiserweight division. Haye’s chin will have to be a lot better than it’s been in the past for him to get out of the Valuev fight without getting knocked down and beaten.

The chances are slim that Haye will be able to knock Valuev out regardless of Haye’s power because for him to knock out most of his foes in the past, he’s had to depend on landing a flurry of shots to get them out of there. If Haye stands in Valuev’s power alley and tries to land a flurry, Haye’s going to get hit with something. I’d put my money on Valuev winning in an exchange between the two fighters because he at least can take a good shot and you can’t really say the same thing for Haye because he hasn’t proven that he can.

“Valuev is slow and cumbersome, but he can punch like a mule so David has to be careful,” Froch says. Valuev does hit a lot harder than most people assume.