By Scott Gilfoid: With no one giving him much praise after losing a fight to IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko by a 12 round decision in a fight that he said he would easily win on Saturday night in Hamburg, Germany, Haye took it upon himself to give himself a pat on the back, saying “He’s 30 odd pounds heavier than me and hit me with some of his best shots. I didn’t go down. I wasn’t hurt at any stage. I think I proved I’m a great fighter.” Utterly delusional I say.

I think few boxing fans would agree with that other than maybe his own loyal British fans from the UK who can’t see any wrong in the man for some reason. The fact of the matter is Wladimir only landed 134 punches in the fight with the vast majority of those punches being from jabs, not right hands or left hooks. Haye got hit with 104 jabs, because Wladimir wasn’t taking any chances in this fight. It’s one thing bragging if you’ve had to take a lot of hard right or left hooks from a guy like Wladimir but it’s quite another thing to brag that you’re great when all you were hit with most of the fight were jabs.

Haye had a good round in the 3rd, landing a big right hand. However, Haye seemed to stop really trying after Wladimir tagged him with a straight hand in the 5th that drew blood from Haye’s nose. It’s sometimes difficult to give a cause for a fighter mentally quitting in a fight, but that one punch from Wladiimir looked to be the point where Haye stopped really trying in a big way to win. After that, Haye spent most of the rounds taunting Wladimir with his hands held low and using a lot of feints without pulling the trigger.

Haye seemed to be milking the referee for sympathy early in the fight, falling down when Wladimir would bump him. It worked because Wladimir lost a point for pushing Haye to the canvas in the 7th, even though it wasn’t much of a shove. Haye just collapsed in a theatrical manner, like he was looking for Wladimir to be penalized. However, when Haye kept flopping on the canvas the referee tired of Haye’s antics and warned him to stop falling down.

Wladimir out-landed Haye 134 to 72, and was the aggressor for most of the fight despite Haye coming into the bout as being thought of as the guy who would be fighting with an urgency and fire.