By Mark Hepplestall: The “London Championship” is at hand and has caught the imagination of the whole of the UK, media coverage of British boxing has gone through the roof, and worldwide coverage is guaranteed. WBA world heavyweight champion David Haye has won 24 of his 25 fights, 22 by KO to just one lost 1 by stoppage and is facing Audley Harrison who has a record consisting of 27, 20 by KO to only 4 defeats.
Harrison was picked due to his performances in Prize-fighter and his less than impressive display yet great last gasp knock out of Michael Sprott. Haye has beaten all of his heavyweight opposition put in front of him as of yet, that includes Nikolay Valuev who was not blasted out of the ring but all experts agree totally out boxed over the 12 round distance.
The fighters have no respect for each other and want to totally embarrass each other in the ring on the 13th of November. Haye stating “the fight will be more one sided then gang-rape” while Audley calls Haye “the false prophet of boxing”.
Haye has received mostly negative press and even though most experts agree Haye is the favourite to win by stoppage there are still some bloggers stressing Haye has no chance against the bigger Harrison. The reasons Haye is the Favourite to win are as follows
1) Haye’s Speed, Weighing in at a lowly 210.5lbs Haye has undoubtedly got the speed advantage in a weight division were speed kills. Haye is undoubtedly the quickest boxer in the heavyweight division with only an overweight cruiserweight in Eddie Chambers close to this speed. Harrison at the age of 39 has his best days behind him, maybe even left in the amateur ranks after the Olympics, Speed has never been his strong point but his other attributes make up for his lack of speed.
2) Haye’s Movement, as shown in the Nikolay Valuev and John Ruiz fights Haye can move around that ring like no other Heavyweight boxer, his movement forces his opponent into fighting at a higher tempo then they trained for and at that point Haye capitalizes on mistakes.
3) Haye’s Aggressive attitude, it’s no secret that Haye moves out quickly to land the large punches from the start. It’s also no secret that when Harrison fights against a boxer that comes straight at him for all 12 rounds he chokes and looks similar to a rabbit in the headlights. Key fights that prove this include Harrison’s awful display against Martin Rogan the Belfast taxi driver and even the first 2 rounds until he got the KO in the Prize-fighter final against Coleman Barrett.
4) Haye’s Power, for a boxer of his size Haye hits harder than most, knocking out 3 of his 4 heavyweight opponents and even rocking Valuev for the first time in his career. Harrison has power of his own but power is measured with a simple equation consisting of Power = Speed x Mass + Precision. Both fighters can land big shots, but its Haye who has done it on the world stage and consistently
It doesn’t matter if you like Haye or not or you like Harrison or not the fact is this fight is unlikely to go the distance and for sheer excitement will surpass some of the more recent televised heavyweight fights not mentioning specific names.
My Prediction is Harrison will be fighting out of a coma by the 6th round.
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