By Sean McDaniel: British and Commonwealth super middleweight champion George Groves was impressed with how former WBA heavyweight champion David Haye fought in his one-sided loss to IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko last Saturday night. Groves, who fights for Haye’s promotional company Hayemaker Promotions, said this to Sky Sports News: “I thought David Haye performed well during the fight, he was really up against it with Wladimir Klitschko…It was a brilliant fight, it was the best Wladimir Klitschko’s boxed in a long, long time.”

Groves must not have seen any of Wladimir’s fights before because this was the standard fight for him. He didn’t look any better in this fight than he did in dominating Samuel Peter and Eddie Chambers last year. It was a different kind of opponent in front him. Chambers was more skilled and was looking to throw combinations against Wladimir, and didn’t throw the amateurish wild hayemaker shots like Haye did. Peter had much more size than Haye and wasn’t afraid to try and push the fight to get in close. I would say Wladimir was fighting a kind a raw fighter with a wild punching style that professional fighters rarely see. Most pros don’t throw wild shots the way that Haye was doing against Wladimir. Fighters are taught not to throw wild punches because they leave themselves open to get tagged on the way in or after they’ve missed a shot.

Groves said “There’s limited tactics you can have against a big 6’7″, 17 and a half stone heavyweight who’s that effective at what he does. You can’t stand there and box with Wladimir, he’s too big and too long.”

Haye never even tried to really box Wladimir. Instead it was one punch at a time with few combinations attempted. In hindsight, it was the wrong thing for Haye to try and do. He may have watched Wladimir’s fight with big 6’4″ southpaw Corrie Sanders and think that he could duplicate what Sanders did in stopping Wladimir in two rounds. Sanders pot shotted Wladimir with a hard left hand, stunned him and then took him out with a combination. However, Sanders was a lot bigger than the 6’2″ Haye and a much stronger puncher. Haye didn’t have the size or the power that Sanders possessed. As such, Haye was like a slightly stronger version of Eddie Chambers when he needed to be as powerful and as big as Sanders to have any chance at winning.