By Jason Kim: The July 2nd bout between WBA heavyweight champion David Haye and IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko pits two fighters with opposite fighting styles going up against other. Haye is a pure slugger that wins by stunning his opponents with big hayemaker shots followed by flurries to take them out, while Wladimir tends to box behind his jab and slowly wear his opponents down until stopping them late.

The shorter 6’2″ Haye will have problems with Wladimir if the 6’6″ Ukrainian sticks to his usual routine of boxing from the outside. For this reason, Haye has been both begging Wladimir to mix it up with him and trying to goad him into fighting that way by criticizing his safety first fighting style.

In an article at the mirror.co.uk, Haye said “On that night, there will be one boxer prepared to back up his words with action: Me.”

Haye has said that he wants to get to Wladimir early to try and take him out, and he’s hoping that he fights aggressively to make that easier. Haye has done a good job of angering Wladimir with his insults in recent weeks and feels fairly confident that he will fight his fight by trying to come out on the attack instead of fighting behind the jab. But whether Wladimir does or not, Haye has a strategy to defeat Wladimir’s long range attack. Haye’s not saying what the plan consists of but it’s reasonable to assume that it involves Haye blocking one of Wladimir’s jabs and then coming straight at him in a fast attack to unload on his chin before Wladimir has time to react.

Haye can be devastating when he throws fast combinations and there’s not a lot that Wladimir can do if he really gets close enough to unload with six to eight fast and hard shots. Wladimir will have to either try and cover up or grab. We saw that Wladimir can be hurt while attempting to clinch fast fighters when he was blown out by the quick-fisted Corrie Sanders in 2003. Wladmir might be at Haye’s mercy if he unloads with a sustained flurry. If Haye can do this again and again in the early going, we may see Wladimir go down for the count.