Haye’s low weight of 212 lbs seals his fate; he has no chance against Wladimir

By Boxing News - 07/01/2011 - Comments

Image: Haye's low weight of 212 lbs seals his fate; he has no chance against WladimirBy William Mackay: Photo: Stefan Hoyer – At today’s weigh-in for Saturday’s mega fight at the Imtech Arena in Hamburg, Germany, WBA heavyweight champion David Haye (25-1, 23 KO’s) scaled in at a slender 212.8 lbs at the weigh-in, a weight that is lower than I expected for him. His opponent IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (55-3, 49 KO’s) came in at a solid 242.6 lbs, which is about what he weighs for most of his fights. What this means is that Haye is going to be giving away 30 pounds to Wladimir. That’s too much even with a little knockout puncher like Haye to deal with.

Let’s look at some of Wladimir’s fights against guys that came in below 220 lbs:

Eddie Chambers: Weight: 209½, Result: KO 12
Sultan Ibragimov: Weight: 219, Result: UD 12
Chris Byrd: Weight: 213½, Result: TKO 7
Eliseo Castillo: Weight: 215, Result: TKO 4
DaVarryl Williamson: Weight: 218, Result: TD 5
Chris ByrdL Weight: 213½, Result: UD 12
Axel Schulz: Weight: 219¼, Result: TKO 8
James Pritchard: Weight: 214, Result: TKO3
Zoran Vujecic: Weight:214, Result: KO 1
Exum Speight: Weight: 207½, Result: KO 2

As you can see, Wladimir has always done incredibly well against fighters that have come in less than 220 lbs, and he’s done very well against fighters that came in less than 214 lbs. This isn’t good news for Haye because he’s going to be fighting history and will be giving away 30 pounds of weight. This isn’t useless weight like the huge weight advantage Haye’s last opponent Audley Harrison had over Haye when Harrison came into their November 2010 fight weighing 253.5, while Haye came in at 210 lbs. Wladimir can actually fight and fights to his size. Harrison might as well have come into the fight weighing 200 lbs because he didn’t even attempt to throw any real punches in the fight and made it easy for Haye to win.

Let’s look at what Haye is up against. It’s like taking Manny Pacquiao, weighing 145 lbs and putting him in with Bernard Hopkins at light heavyweight. I like Pacquiao a lot as a fighter but I wouldn’t give him a chance in a million in beating Hopkins. Hopkins would mug Pacquiao and make him miserable. The same goes for Wladimir except he hits a lot harder than Hopkins. He’s going to be able to throw Haye around and block his shots without any problems. Just the weight behind Wladimir’s shots hitting the gloves of Haye is going to be knocking him back and off balance. There’s just too much size for Wladimir in this fight for Haye to have a chance to win.



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