David Haye has no defense against Wladimir’s jabs

By Boxing News - 01/02/2011 - Comments

By William Mackay: In looking at WBA heavyweight champion David Haye’s fight against 38-year-old John Ruiz last year, it jumps out at you how wide open and helpless the 6’2″ Haye for getting hit with jabs. Ruiz, only 6’2″ him and not particularly long of arm, was able to knock Haye off balance and keep him on the outside with his jabs alone much of the time. Granted, Haye was able to land his looping right hands due to Ruiz’s deteriorated reflexes, it was interesting to note how easily Ruiz was able to hit Haye with jabs.

Now if you look at Haye facing IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, who has much longer arms and a much better jab than Ruiz, it looks like Haye is going to find himself in deep, deep trouble in that fight unless he can find a way to successfully maneuver his way past Wladimir’s powerful jabs. Lunging forward with wild shots isn’t going to be something that will work for Haye with any consistency because Wladimir often fights off his back foot and is good at backing away from long punches.

And Wladimir isn’t going to allow Haye to crowd him without moving away or clinching. Haye may decide to throw flurries if Wladimir tries to clinch, and we may see Haye even resort to throwing rabbit punches. However, it’s doubtful that Haye will get away with throwing and landing rabbit punches against Wladimir, because the referee will have been tipped off ahead of time to watch for this and penalize and/or disqualify Haye if he throws more than two or three in the fight.

When a fighter throws low blows over an over again, they lose points and are eventually disqualified. The same may apply for Haye, but he could get the yank by the referee much faster if he knocks Wladimir out with a rabbit shot. My advice for Haye is to straighten out his punches and try to keep it clean or else he could find himself losing the fight by disqualification. As far as jabs go, Haye has got a real problem on his hands here because with Wladimir’s powerful jabs, it won’t be long before Haye’s face swells up, his eyes close and he’s fighting blind.



Comments are closed.