By William Mackay: WBA heavyweight champion David Haye (25-1, 23 KO’s ) is taking great pride at seeing his fighter George Groves follow a planned strategy last Saturday night in beating British super middleweight champion James DeGale by a close 12 round majority decision.

The strategy was one where Groves used a lot of frequent movement around the ring and short attacks to keep Groves off balance and unable to plant and attack. Seeing Groves follow their strategy to successful completion against DeGale has given Haye confidence for his fight against IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (55-3, 49 KO’s) on July 2nd.

Although Haye won’t say what his strategy will be against Wladimir, it’s pretty obvious that it’s going to be one where Haye uses constant movement and quick darting attacks against the tall 6’6” Ukrainian. Haye can’t stand in front of him because that would be suicide. Haye also can’t rush Wladimir and try to take him out because he’ll get picked apart on the way in and might run into a perfectly timed left hook from Wladimir.

In an article at the telegraph.co.uk, Haye said “It’s gratifying to see the game plan Adam [Booth] had worked on with George work so well. We are planning the same thing for Klitschko. We have a strategy and we are going in there to implement it on July 2nd.”

There’s a huge difference between Groves winning an incredibly close decision that could have gone either way and Haye beating a much taller fighter with superior boxing skills and experience like Wladimir. There’s a huge difference between what Groves did and what Haye plans on doing. Fighters have attempted to beat Wladimir with movement before, and it doesn’t work. It just causes them to get jabbed all night. Haye might survive longer by moving but he’s only going to tire himself out and get knocked out or badly out-pointed. He might be better off ditching the Groves strategy and just rushing madly at Wladimir hoping to get lucky. At least if he does that Haye will have a puncher’s chance at winning. If he moves around a lot, he’ll just waste energy and get knocked out when he slows down.