Haye vs. Harrison: Will the weakest of the heavyweight champions retain his title?

By Boxing News - 10/11/2010 - Comments

By William Mackay: World Boxing Association heavyweight champion David Haye (24-1, 22 KO’s) isn’t too well thought nowadays due his reluctance to fight either of the Klitschko brothers and because of his choice to defend his WBA title against Audley Harrison (27-4, 20 KO’s) next on November 13th, rather than a more qualified opponent.

Haye, 29, will be facing Harrison at the M.E.N. Arena, Manchester, Lancashire in what will likely be a sold out arena. Haye is easily the weakest of the three heavyweight champions, and that’s probably not going to change no matter how easily he beats Harrison next month.

The sad thing is boxing experts aren’t even sure if Haye will win this fight, because of his weak chin, his lack of credible experience at the heavyweight level and because of how casual he seems to be about this fight.

Haye doesn’t appear to be motivated for it, whereas Harrison seems to be treating like a little kid waiting for Christmas. Harrison can’t wait to get in the ring and start letting his punches fly. That could be a bad sign for Haye, because he looked very tentative in his fight against Russian Nikolay Valuev last year.

Harrison is even more dangerous than Valuev and moves a lot better as well. We could be seeing Haye run for his life in a terrible stinker of a fight unless he’s willing to take some risks and let his punches go. Haye was aggressive in his last fight against 38-year-old John Ruiz in April, but then again he was facing an old fighter without much size or power.

Harrison may be as old as Ruiz, but he’s a lot bigger and hits a lot harder than him. Ruiz landed some hard shots against Haye in that fight and had him looking beat up at the end. If Harrison lands as much as Ruiz did, we could be seeing a new heavyweight champion on November 13th.

Haye has got to try and get some respect from Harrison in the fight, because Harrison looks like he wants to take Haye’s head off right now. He knows that this could be his last chance at making big money, and he doesn’t want to throw it away by being passive.

Harrison has his back to the wall, and he’s dangerous because of that. He’s fighting with a lot to lose and with his big power, he could take Haye out if he’s able to land one of his left hands flush.



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