By Jason Kim: Ross Puritty is one of three fighters to have beaten Wladimir Klitschko in the distant past, but in order to best him, Puritty had to take a ton of punishment against a much younger Wladimir back in 1998. Puritty recently gave his thoughts on Wladimir’s fight against WBA heavyweight champion David Haye on Saturday night at the Imtech Arena in Hamburg, Germany.
Puritty is giving Haye only three rounds to score a knockout. If Haye can’t take Wladimir out in the first three rounds then Puritty sees Wladimir wearing Haye down and stopping him in the 2nd half of the fight.
Puritty said this to thesun.co.uk: “Haye is not big enough to stand and take punches like I did. His chin isn’t strong enough for starters…He must do it between the first and third rounds. After that, Klitschko will grow in confidence. He’ll be too strong and I take him to stop Haye in the second half of the fight or win by a decision.”
Purrity is right, of course, except that Wladimir may be too strong for Haye from the beginning of the fight. You have to remember that Wladimir does well against small fighters like Haye. Wladimir easily beat heavyweights like Eddie Chambers, Sultan Ibragimov and Calvin Brock from the very start.
Those guys were about the same height and weight as Haye. But if Haye is to have a chance at winning the fight he’s got to go right at Wladimir from the start of the fight and not be afraid to get hit. Haye can’t try and beat Wladimir by throwing pots. That won’t work. Haye has to be completely different from what he’s been in the past, because Haye is utterly predictable with his pot shot offense and his hit and run style of fighting.
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