Photo credit Sumio Yamada – By William Mackay: By now, WBA heavyweight champion David Haye (24-1 22 KO’s) has likely had the time to watch WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko’s brutal bludgeoning of challenger Shannon Briggs (51-6-1, 45 KO’s) at least twice, and Haye probably not eager now to have the potential of Vitali doing the same thing to him in the ring.

Briggs took an awful lot of horrible punishment by Vitali, and perhaps because Vitali was landing mostly one big shot a time instead of throwing combinations or flurries, the referee allowed the fight to continue round after round despite the one-sided nature of the fight.

All it likely would have taken for Vitali to get Briggs out was a sustained combination lasting from six to ten punches in length. But instead, Vitali was limited to landing one big shot at a time and this kept the referee from stepping in and stopping the slaughter.

Haye was likely shocked at how dominating Vitali was against Briggs. He may a good heavyweight look like an amateur against him. Briggs might not be as good as used to be earlier in his career, but he would be a lot of problems for Audley Harrison.

I can see Briggs knocking Harrison out, because Briggs has been more of a world class heavyweight contender during his career, whereas Harrison has been domestic heavyweight for his entire career. Haye might not want to get beaten up like Briggs was, especially if it means that Haye will get beaten in such a slow and methodical manner for 12 rounds the way that Vitali did with Briggs.

Haye has said that he wants to make Harrison suffer as long as he can by keeping him in the fight for 12 rounds to punish him. But that’s not the kind of heavyweight Haye is. He’s the type of guy that knocks guys out quickly. For him to watch what Vitali did to Briggs, that’s got to be something that will make him think twice about wanting to step in the ring with Vitali.

This is why it might have been better for Vitai to struggle against Briggs rather than punish him the way he did. At least it would increase the chance that Haye would possibly want to step in the ring with Vitali. If Haye was seriously afraid of fighting Vitali before, watching him beat up Briggs could make him decide never to fight him.