By Jason Kim: WBA heavyweight champion David Haye (25-1, 23 Ko’s) wants no part of exchanging shots and fighting a long grueling battle against the big 6’6″ 247 pound IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (55-3, 49 Ko’s) on Saturday. Perhaps because of this, Haye is saying he’s going to take Wladimir out early in the fight. It’s the advice that Haye has been given by Manny Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach, who previously trained Wladimir for small number of fights earlier in his career.

Roach thinks that Wladimir is susceptible to problems if you get to him early the way that Corrie Sanders did in 2003 in a 2nd round TKO win, and that’s what appears Haye is going to gamble all his marbles in trying to do. By going at Wladimir early, Haye is playing to his own strength because he’s at his best in the first five rounds. He’s still dangerous after five rounds, but he slows down and becomes very hittable, as we saw in his fight with his 9th round TKO win over 38-year-old John Ruiz.

If Haye is forced to fight Wladimir for nine rounds, Haye could be too beat up to do much of anything other than get knocked out. He doesn’t look powerful after the first half of the fight and seems to become much more mortal in strength. It could be that with all the bodybuilding type muscles that he’s packed on his small frame that he’s built mainly for short fights where he can exert maximum energy in a short, explosive period of time. But he lacks the endurance over the long haul. The bad news for Haye is that Wladimir is fully aware that Haye is going to attack him hard early, and will be prepared to foil his attempts to land one big bomb.

At the same time, Haye is going to have to pay attention to Wladimir’s power, because his left hook is arguably better than any weapon that Haye has in his toolbox, and Wladimir’s jab and right hand are also very formidable weapons. He could knock Haye out if he goes for broke and forgets about defending himself. It’s unfortunate that Haye’s only real chance to win is to attack Wladimir hard early.

The fight would be much better if Haye some boxing skills and some endurance to make the fight last into the later rounds, but it’s probably not going to happen that way. Either Haye will get his early knockout or Wladimir will prevent Haye from landing one of his big shots by fighting defensively, and then wearing him down slowly with his jab to eventually take him out between rounds nine through twelve.