By William Mackay: In Sky Sports News Haye vs. Harrison countdown special, Mike Tyson was shown video of WBA heavyweight champion David Haye’s last fight against 38-year-old John Ruiz in April of this year. Tyson didn’t seem all that impressed with what he saw Haye’s form in that fight, as he pointed out that Haye needs to throw more jabs, hold his hands up higher. Tyson said Haye would have problems against the Klitschko brothers fighting like that. Tyson also thinks the 6’6” Harrison will have no problems hitting Haye due to Haye’s low guard, lack of head movement and the fact he doesn’t move a lot.

Tyson said “He [Haye] should be beating on the guy [Ruiz], jab, jab, boom. Instead of trying to knock him out with one punch, he should be peppering him with jabs and body shots to set him up. He’s not going to be able to do that with the Klitschkos, because those guys are consistent. He’s [Haye] not throwing punches in bunches. He needs to keep his hands up more, because when you watch him throw a punch, he doesn’t move his head. He’s not really elusive.”

Tyson is right. Haye loads up on single shots and doesn’t throw combinations at all unless he’s able to stun one of his opponents. Haye totally relies on his ability to hurt a fighter with one shot, and that’s when he opens up with combinations. This is why Haye’s work rate tends to be very low in most of the rounds. If Haye faces someone that actually uses their jab instead of the soft opposition that Haye has been matched against thus far, he’s going to have problems – bit problems. The Klitschko always use their jabs, and with their huge size and long reach, Haye is going to have a tough time landing his pot shots. Haye is basically still fighting with the same style that he’s been using since he first turned pro.

It didn’t matter when Haye was fighting in the then weak cruiserweight division, because the talent of the fighters enabled Haye to get away with his bad boxing skills. However, now that Haye has moved up to the heavyweight division where fighters are a lot bigger, his low work rate, lack of jab, head movement, size and inability to keep his guard up will get him knocked out by fighters like the Klitschko brothers and some of the other top heavyweights in the division that have good boxing basics.

Tyson then went on about Harrison, saying “He’s capable of hitting David with those punches, because David wasn’t in there being a jack rabbit running around. He’s going to hit him [Haye] with punches. There’s no doubt.”