By Sean McDaniel: Former IBF/WBA/WBC/WBO super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe is picking World Boxing Association (WBA) heavyweight champion David Haye (24-1, 22 KO’s) to beat Audley Harrison (27-4, 20 KO’s) next month in their bout on November 13th at the M.E.N. Arena, in Manchester. In an interview at Sky Sports, Calzaghe says “I don’t think Harrison deserves to fight for the title. I see Haye winning all day long. I don’t think Harrison really has a chance. He has a puncher’s chance but he’s not that big of a puncher. So I think Haye will basically win this.”

Calzaghe may be right about Haye winning the fight, but he’s definitely wrong about Harrison not being a big puncher. It makes me wonder if Calzaghe has even seen Harrison fight. You can’t say that Harrison’s not a big puncher, because he has excellent power in his left hand. Harrison’s problem is that he’s been reluctant to let his power go, because of his timid style of fighting. A lot of boxing fans and writers wondered why Harrison didn’t fight with more aggression to let his power shot. When they finally saw Harrison get stopped by Michael Sprott in the 3rd round in 2007, and then get hurt in his 10 round decision loss to Martin Rogan in December 2008, they realized that Harrison doesn’t seem to trust his own chin.

However, Harrison has been putting more trust in it lately and has won his last four fights, three of them by knockout. Harrison had no qualms about throwing power punches in those fights and looked incredibly dangerous. If Harrison fights like that against Haye, I can see Harrison winning by a knockout. Calzaghe perhaps hasn’t been following Harrison lately because he might change his mind if he saw his land handful of fights. I think Harrison has an excellent chance of winning this fight if he lets his left hand go. If not, he’ll lose because Haye will pot shot him to a win.

Calzaghe cut his career short by retiring in 2008 after beating Roy Jones Jr. A lot of boxing fans felt that Calzaghe retired way too soon and missed out on the chance to take on top super middleweights Lucian Bute, Andre Ward, Carl Froch and Andre Dirrell. Some boxing fans felt that Calzaghe retired early to avoid facing those fighters and possibly get beaten and lose his undefeated record. It’s hard to say for sure, but one thing we do know is that Calzaghe retired when he was still fighting quite well.