By William Mackay: Instead of being merciful to his British opponent WBA heavyweight champion David Haye (25-1, 23 KO’s), IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (55-3, 49 KO’s) intends on prolonging Haye’s suffering by jabbing him and making a mess of Hayes face until the 12th round, at which time Wladimir plans on knocking Haye cold.

“How many rounds will it take? My wish is to go for the whole 12 rounds and then in the final round, to knock David Haye out,” Wladimir said to Sky Sports News. “I just hope nothing happens in between.”

What Wladimir is referring to is Haye getting hurt and taken out much earlier than what Wladimir is hoping for. The problem that Wladimir has is that he’s so powerful, and his left hook, right hand and jabs are so good, that if he puts a beating on Haye for any length of time, we could see Haye bite the canvas for the 10 count or have his trainer/manager Adam Booth pull the plug on the fight in order to save Haye from suffering a terrible, perhaps career-ending beating. We already saw Booth make a quick stoppage of one of Haye’s bouts when the going got a little tough against Carl Thompson in 2004.

The thing is Haye was still actively fighting back at the time that Booth threw in the towel, and who knows? Haye might have been able to weather the storm from Thompson and win. Of course, it’s a whole different ballgame with Wladimir, because he’s so much bigger and much stronger than the cruiserweight Thompson. But hopefully, Booth doesn’t pull the plug on Thompson when he starts to get pounded for any length of time, because that’s part of what Haye will to endure if he wants to win the fight. All of Wladimir’s opponents, even the three that have beaten him, have had to take a certain amount of big shots from him. If Haye isn’t up to it or if Booth can’t handle seeing Haye get served up, then Wladimir won’t get to prolong Haye’s suffering.