By William Mackay: Former heavyweight title challenger Tony Thompson thinks WBA heavyweight champion David Haye is going to easily beat Audley Harrison on November 13th, saying in an article at Boxrec.com “I couldn’t have been more impressed with David in sparring, and he was twice the fighter I first thought he was. I just think this is going to be an easy win for him on November 13.”

The 6’5” southpaw Thompson served as Haye’s main sparring partner to get him ready for the 6’6” Harrison. Thompson, 39, is still one of the best heavyweights in the division, but from the sounds of it, he took a pounding from Haye during this training camp.

Thompson says “I told David at the beginning that if he can hit me with right hands and beat the hell out of me in practice, he will destroy Audley Harrison. If David can do what he did to me, Audley’s got no shot in this fight at all.”

We can only guess that Haye dominated Thompson. However, this is sparring and it was obviously done with head gear and 16 ounce gloves. It’s hard to say whether Haye would be able to dominate Thompson with normal sized gloves and without the head gear. In addition, sparring partners are usually loyal to the fighters that hire them, and because of that they rarely say anything negative about them.

You have to take what Thompson says about Haye easily beating Harrison with a grain of salt. For one, Thompson likely formed a friendship with Haye and will be less inclined to want to say anything bad about him because of that.

And second, if Thompson really was battered around by Haye, he’s more likely going to inflate Haye’s talent and ability because then it’s not as bad having been beaten up by him. You can’t expect Thompson to turn around and immediately predict that Harrison would stop a fighter that was dominating him in sparring.

Thompson says “Audley is nowhere near on this level. He’s leagues below where I’m operating and that’s just common boxing knowledge. Anybody that has ever watched a fight on television knows that.” I think Thompson is wrong. Harrison compares closely with Thompson, and may be a better fighter because of his superior power.

Harrison is a late bloomer. He’s one of those rare heavyweights that actually get better rather than worse as he approaches 40. I would favor Harrison in a fight with Thompson because of Harrison’s left hand power, and because he’s looked like a completely different fighter in the past year compared to how he used to fight.