By Scott Gilfoid: In watching last night’s fight between IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (54-3, 38 KO’s) and Eddie Chambers (35-2, 18 KO’s), I can easily see how WBA heavyweight champion David Haye (23-1, 21 KO’s) would look as equally bad as Chambers did in losing to Wladimir. You can’t even call the Chambers-Klitschko fight a bout. It resembled a schoolyard beating where a huge kid toyed with a smaller kid, beating him up in front of a huge crowd of people. Chambers had no chance, really, and just stood on the outside with his hands in front of his face absorbing shots.

It’s not that Chambers didn’t try to fight back. He did. But Chambers’ reach was too short, and he came up empty most of the time when he would try to land a shot. Haye would have the same size issues that Chambers had in the fight, and it’s hard to see Haye doing little more than covering up and trying to survive like Chambers did for most of the fight. Haye’s hand speed is about the same as Chambers, no better, no worse.

But Haye isn’t as good defensively as Chambers, and that would be a problem against a fighter like Wladimir, who would be shooting ramrod jabs down the middle all night long, taking advantage of Haye’s poor defensive ability. Haye’s defense would really be his movement. He’d have to run laps around the ring to keep from getting hit so much by Wladimir. I’ve seen how slow Haye looks at heavyweight, and it would be painful to see him trying to move laterally against a fighter like Wladimir would be picking him off like target practice.

Haye would be better off if he just stood there and went all out and tried to fight it out with Wladimir rather than moving around the ring. I think it would only be forestalling the inevitable if Haye decides to run. Sometimes there really isn’t any other choice but to stand your ground and give it your best shot. I think Haye would have to use the Corrie Sanders, Lamon Brewster and Ross Purity approach to fighting Wladimir.

Each of those fighters went after Wladimir hard from the very beginning of the fight and were more or less willing to take his shots in order to get in their own punches. You have to really commit against Wladimir and be willing to absorb a certain amount of punishment to have a chance at beating him. I didn’t see that commitment from Chambers last night.

And, sadly, I don’t see Haye being willing to risk getting hit with the kinds of shots that Wladimir will be tagging him with if Haye was to go after him early. More importantly, I don’t think Haye’s chin would be able to withstand a big right hand or left hook from Wladimir. The kind of shots that Chambers was getting hit with all night long last night, I think would have had Haye stretched out on the canvas early, looking up at the blinding lights and counting stars.

The big right hand that Wladimir hurt Chambers within the 2nd round, I think would have been curtains for Haye. I’d like to think that Haye would have taken that shot without too many problems, but based on how he’s gone down in the past in other fights, against smaller fighters, I think Haye would have been stopped outright in the 2nd round by Klitschko.

I think Haye is a good heavyweight, and capable of beating some of the fighters in the top 15, but not the Klitschko brothers. Haye would be better off bypassing a fight against Wladimir or Vitali, and milking his title by defending it against the likes of Bernard Hopkins, Tomasz Adamek, Ruiz and Nikolay Valuev. At least that way, Haye would have a better chance in my view to hold onto his WBA title until he reaches 31, which is when he’s said that he wants to retire. I think Haye will make more money in all of those fights combined than he would in being beaten by Wladimir or Vitali.