By Chris Williams: Currently, World Boxing Association heavyweight champion David Haye’s management team is negotiating a fight with IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko. Rumors are that the negotiations are going well and there could be a fight between the two champions by the end of 2010. You can’t be too sure, however, because Haye was on course to fight Wladimir and his brother Vitali Klitschko only to come up lame in the case of Wladimir. With Vitali, Haye, without a word, walked away from the negotiations and instead chose to fight the light hitting, slow moving Nikolay Valuev. It obviously was a good decision by Haye, as he won a razor thin 12 round decision over Valuev to capture the WBA title.
With the win over Valuev, it put Haye in a better bargaining position with Wladimir to get what he hopes is parity in terms of the revenue for the fight. If the fight does get made, you have to wonder whether Haye will have any more chance to win that Klitschko’s recent knockout victims. Haye has a large amount of supporters, most of them from his home country of the UK, who believe that he’ll knockout Wladimir and take his belts.
However, Haye isn’t a big heavyweight, standing only 6’2” 220, and doesn’t have much of any jab to work behind. Haye would be fighting with only one real hope – to land one of his wild pot shots that he likes to throw. Haye’s chances of out-boxing the tall 6’6” Klitschko are slim and none. Haye isn’t much of a boxer but rather he’s a pure slugger who looks to land one big shot to hurt his opponents. He doesn’t set up his shots with a stiff jab like most fighters do. Instead Haye lets loose with wide Haymakers and tries to take his opponent out. Haye’s hand speed, which is good, enables him to get away with his primitive looking punches.
Normally, a fighter that throws wide shots like Haye would be taken apart by a good fighter who tag him with a punch straight down the middle when Haye would open up. However, he’s been effectively largely due to his speed. But Haye hasn’t beaten anyone that you could really consider a quality heavyweight. Valuev was a champion, but few people felt that he belonged at that position, especially given his horrible performance against 46 year old Evander Holyfield a year earlier in 2008.
Valuev won that fight, but appeared to lose it by a couple of rounds. In some ways, Holyfield looked better against Valuev than Haye did. Most recently, Haye stopped another older fighter in 38 year old John Ruiz in the 9th round. The fight was one sided from the start, as Haye had too much speed and power for Ruiz to compete with. However, the win did little other than proving that Haye could beat another aging fighter.
Against Klitschko, Haye will have big problems trying to land his lunging hooks because of Wladimir’s height and reach. Punches that would normally land against his shorter opponents will come short of the target and force Haye to take withering fire for his efforts. Given that Haye has a weak chin, he might not last if he has to take some of Wladimir’s hard left hooks and right hands. Haye’s only chance at winning is a knockout.
Wladimir can beat Haye either by boxing or by throwing bombs. Wladimir has hinted that how he’ll be fighting Haye by saying he wants to give him pizza face for 12 rounds. In other words, Wladimir intends on jabbing Haye all night long and causing Haye’s face to redden, swell and bust up. Wladimir’s jab is probably the best in the heavyweight division by far and with that weapon alone, he could give Haye a lot of problems.
Haye won’t be able to take 12 rounds of being jabbed without something busting up on his face. Once Haye is cut of loses his vision in one of his eyes due to the swelling, he won’t have much of a chance against Wladimir. Haye’s only real chance is to try and rush Wladimir early and attempt to land something big before he starts getting the living daylights pounded out of him. I don’t think Haye can. He seems to be on a lower level than Wladimir and not suited for a fight against someone of his size and talent. Haye would be better off if he chose to fight smaller heavyweights like Tomasz Adamek, Samuel Peter, Chris Arreola and Denis Boytsov. He would have a much better chance at success against them than against Wladimir.
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