By William Mackay: If there’s been a single goal that WBA heavyweight champion David Haye has been working on the past month it’s trying to intimidate and anger IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko enough to the point where he will be either scared or upset and won’t fight well when they finally do come to blows in Germany.

Haye thinks he’s got Wladimir upset enough to where it will give him a better chance to win. It’s kind of an old trick that’s been played out many times before with one fighter trying hard to intimidate the other, but with Haye’s taken it to another level that hasn’t been seen since the era of Muhammad Ali. However, Haye isn’t as quick with the insults as Ali or as skilled a fighter.

Haye needs to think of insults ahead of time and he’s not a two-fisted combination puncher like Ali was. Haye wins by first hurting his opponents with a pot shot and then finishing them off with a blinding flurry. He’s done well against the opposition that he’s been put in with. But Wladimir is a lot better than guys that Haye beaten in the past like Jean Marc Mormeck, Enzo Maccarinelli, John Ruiz, Monte Barrett, Nikolay Valuev and Audley Harrison. Those are the best guys that Haye has fought during his career, and none of them are anywhere close to being in the same league as Wladimir.

Haye said this to the sportinglife.co.uk: “Never before has Wladimir Klitschko been booed on his way to a weigh-in. That’s the first time. I thought he looked nervous. I raddled him.”

This bit with Haye wanting Wladimir nervous. It won’t mean much if Haye can’t do anything more than throw pot shots tomorrow night. Haye has got to go after Wladimir to beat him, because Wladimir can handle a pot shot. To beat Wladimir, Haye will come after him and unload with a flurry of punches and that’s not likely to happen. Haye will be playing it safe unless he feels that he’s hurt Wladimir. But we saw how brave Haye was against Valuev when he fought at a snail’s pace for 12 rounds and still didn’t go after the big Russian even when he had him briefly staggered in the 12th. If that’s all Haye can do tomorrow night then no amount of intimidation is going to help him win the fight.

People who live off of intimidating others often use it to gain power the easy way rather than actually fighting them. It’s a shortcut that humans use to avoid having to do the hard work themselves. They hope they can scare their way to an easy victory rather than actually putting in the sweat and having to risk getting cut up and bruised in an actual fight. This appears to be what Haye is doing. It might work against some fighters, but it probably won’t work with Wladimir because he’ll be throwing punches tomorrow night and won’t just stand there and concede defeat. The real test is whether Haye, the bully, will be able to handle it when Wladimir fights him instead of runs. We could see the bully back and play it safe in order to fight another day.