By Adam Fillingham: I have a lot of friends that enjoy a good boxing match up. So, we have a lot of discussion and this week was the turn of the heavyweight match up between World Boxing Council champion Vitali Kltschko and former WBA champion Nikolay Valuev. Most of the group have predicted an easy win for Klitschko, like most boxing fans would, but one of our group has gone with the 7ft giant Valuev. Now before you all laugh or whatever, he did have a good argument.

“Valuev has the superior reach, height and Klitschko isn’t as fast as David Haye”

Now that’s a good argument. But I still disagree for many reasons, this is why…

1. Vitali isn’t as fast as Haye, and has slowed down more and more through the years but Vitali has no reason to run around the ring. He is not all that much shorter than Valuev and his reach length isn’t that much shorter either. Vitali’s footwork isn’t that of Haye’s to be honest as well, so why would he stay on the outside.

2. Vitali has the chin to stand and trade with Valuev all night long. Valuev does posses some power but nothing close to the power Vitali possesses. Also Vitali will most likely beat Valuev to the punch due to the superior speed of Klitschko. This isn’t a good sign for Valuev since Vitali has slowed down considerably and yet he is still quicker than the former WBA champion.

3. Vitali has too much to lose. If Klitschko looks bad against Valuev or even doesn’t knock him out, he is going to look as good if not worse than his “enemy” David Haye. Klitschko is going to want to get Valuev out of there as quick as possible which will make for an amazing night of entertainment from two boring fighters.

4. Valuev has been exposed by Haye. The battle plans are there and if Vitali needs them he could revert to bobbing in and out. This may not work for a big man like Klitschko but they worked to perfection for Haye and going toe to toe with big Valuev isn’t always a safe game plan.

5. And finally Valuev was hurt for the first time in his career by Haye. Haye showed that Nikolay is human after all and can be hurt. Klitschko has as much, if not more power than Haye at times so also has the ability to hurt him. He could go one step further than Haye and knock him down or even out as Vitali may hit Valuev with many more punches per round than Haye did.

But we will have to see who’s argument will come true in April/May next year.