By Mark Young: David Haye finally got what he asked for, and he came up short. In reality David Haye came up about six inches short and 50lbs too light. Wladimir Klitschko was sort of correct in an earlier assessment of Haye, the man’s a cruiserweight in the heavyweight division.

A lot has been made of the old heavyweight division, how former champs would have demolished the Klitschko brothers, but the reality is that they wouldn’t. Guys like Haye would have fitted into the old heavyweight division, where big fighters were 6’2 or 6’3 and 220 – 230 lbs and carrying just a little bit of fat. George Foreman was a big heavyweight for his day at 6’3 ½, the reality is he would have struggled against the Klitschkos like everyone else.

Wladimir Klitschko came into last nights snooze fest stripped down to 242lb and standing 6’6″ tall. The only real entertainment occurred before the fight, sadly the fight itself was an anticlimax. Haye had promised to use his superior speed to dance around the big cumbersome Ukrainian, before unloading his Hayemaker on the giants chin, the reality was he offered nothing that we haven’t seen before. The truth is that Wlad’s not that slow, his jab’s not lightening fast, but it’s quick enough to keep guys at bay and it’s long enough to ensure that anyone trying to get around it has to launch from 6 feet away in order to tag his chin, meaning that anyone hitting Wlad hasn’t got their feet planted and loses their power.

I wasn’t remotely sad to see Haye lose, he embarrassed himself in the build up to the fight and dispensed humility in favour of sensationalism, from a credibility point of view this was a high risk strategy, a loss to Wlad would bring a blanket of abuse sure to follow him into retirement. Wladimir once again produced a performance that defines him, a low risk performance designed to take his quarry to the judges scorecards, Wlad doesn’t go for early knockouts, he waits until his jab has pulverised his opponent before he considers a risky manoeuvre that might leave him open to a counter. Wlads KO of fast Eddie chambers only happened after Emanuel Steward forced him into it, otherwise it would have been another 12 round decision.

It’s quite clear that there’s not going to be a super heavyweight division, and that means until the brothers grim retire from boxing we’ll see these two continue to dominate the division with a style of boxing that suits them and their enormous frames perfectly. It’s pointless to complain that the Klitschkos aren’t entertaining, they don’t have to be, they’re winning, comfortably. The only man that’s really stood against the better of the two brothers, Vitali, was Lennox Lewis, and although his win came in the 7th round and shows as a KO it doesn’t reflect the problems Vitali created for him. Although in Lennox’s defence he was nearing retirement it’s fair to say he had finally met his match from a size perspective.

As for Haye fighting Vitali in the future, it’s a non event, Vitali could seriously hurt Haye and has the skill and will to do it. Vitali would undoubtedly leave openings for Haye, he’s prepared to sideline the tactics that Emanuelle Steward has fine tuned for his brother because he has a granite chin and at least tries to entertain the fans, but he also has more to offer than his brother, as well as that he’s even bigger. If Haye looked small against Wlad he would look like a naughty schoolboy against Vitali, there really is no need to ever see this fight.

Where Haye goes from here is obvious, it’s time to retire. Haye made a lot of money with a very short and pretty uneventful career as a heavyweight. Hayes resume is a long way from special. David Haye is too small to mix it with the heavyweights, below that is boxings equivalent of middle earth, the cruiserweight division, the cursed earth of boxing. With no chance against the big heavies it’s a no brainer, Haye will have to hobble off into retirement with a bucket load of money and put his broken toe up. The reality is he’ll be pushing Hayemaker promotions and pretty soon will have adopted the same business plan as all the other former boxers turned promoters and become a blood sucking cherry picking parasite.

There is one thing that this fight has shown us, and that is that “master tactician” Adam Booth might not quite be the genius everyone has suggested. Adams tailor made plans all seem to have the same basic ingredient, fighting on the back foot while using the ring. Booth and Haye had provided evidence before the fight that Wlad would use his bodyweight to lean on opponents and heft his bulk in order to sap their strength, it seems Hayes master plan to negate this was to fall on the floor like Andre Dirrell, a tactic which saw Wlad initially punished but then became boring and unsporting and saw Haye collect an 8 count for no apparent reason.

The heavyweight division is back to business as usual, the saviour who would reinvent the division turned out to be a blown up cruiser weight after all. In order to beat these guys it’s going to take someone who can come into the ring the same size, I’m not talking about weighing the same, the Klitschkos weigh 240lb and haven’t got an ounce of fat on them, I’m talking about climbing into the ring standing 6’6” or taller, weighing 230lb’s+ with an athletic build and boxing skills. Anything but another giant has one hope, and that’s to KO Wlad with a lucky shot, and as 56 of his opponents will tell you, it’s not that easy.

One would think that the USA might have produced a contender by now, sadly the sport there seems to be in steep decline, even with 300 million+ people the USA has struggled to produce decent fighters over the last few years, certainly heavyweights. Aside from a few aging fighters in lower divisions there doesn’t seem to be the same skill level that was once rife in the USA. I have heard arguments that the bigger guys gravitate towards grid iron and basketball, but the reality is that the Klits would likely dominate most of the former US greats based on the sheer size of them. If only Shaq had laced up the gloves!.