By Sean McDaniel: WBA heavyweight champion David Haye’s team have reportedly given officials a video containing the tactics that IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko has used in past fights, such as holding and leaning on his opponents.

Haye’s team are counting on referee Genaro Rodriguez not to allow Wladimir to hold tonight, and with the pressure that Haye’s team have put on Rodriguez to enforce rules against holding, they’re hoping that he will step in to keep Wladimir from grabbing Haye.

Haye’s team tried to get Rodriguez removed for this fight as the referee, as he’s worked four previous fights of Wladimir’s and hasn’t taken points away from him for clinching or leaning on his opponents. Haye and his team don’t want Wladimir to be able to clinch often in this fight and are counting on Rodriguez doing something about this. They tried to get Rodriguez replaced but the WBA voted on it and decided to keep him.

Nothing was said about Haye’s habit of throwing rabbit punches to the back of his opponents head in close or his bad habit of grabbing his opponents around the neck with his left hand and tagging them with his right. Those two would appear to be worse fouls then excessive clinching.

Haye is the underdog in this fight and needs any advantages he can get in order to win. He’s been working hard trying to intimidate Wladimir with trash talking for the past month, but it’s unclear whether that will pay off come fight time because Wladimir has been stone faced for the most other than complaining about things like Haye’s gruesome t-shirt he had been wearing in the past depicting him holding the severed heads of both of the Klitschko brothers and also complaining about Haye talking about wanting to put Wladimir in the hospital.