By Sean McDaniel: British boxing promoter Frank Warren sees IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (55-3, 49 KO’s) as having the edge in tonight’s fight against WBA heavyweight champion David Haye (25-1, 23 KO’s) at the Imtech Arena in Hamburg, Germany. Warren breaks it down to fire power, heart, experience, chin, tactical brain and stamina and giving Wladimir the advantage in three of those areas.
Warren sees Wladimir as having better stamina, power and experience. The power area will surprise some boxing fans because Haye is often perceived as the bigger puncher of the two. However, if you look at Haye’s fights, he’s really not a huge puncher. To be sure, he can punch hard at times when he throws a shot just right but for the most part his power is more average once he starts throwing combinations.
Haye can deliver good power with a single shot but only when he’s throwing his wide hayemaker shot. Look at his fights and you’ll notice that they only time he can really deliver with a lot of power is when he throws the hayemaker punch. With Wladimir, he throws hard all the time. His right hand and left hook are dangerous no matter when and where he throws it. Wladimir punches with huge power in close and at a distance. His uppercut isn’t really a weapon, but he doesn’t need it because of how good his jab, left hook and right hand are.
Frank sees the areas of the hear, chin and tactical brain as being pretty much equal and I believe he’s right. Both Klitschko and Haye have equally bad chins. And they both want it and will show a lot of hear tonight. In the area of experience, Warren sees Wladimir as having a huge advantage. Haye, for whatever reason, has chosen to fight guys like 38-year-old Monte Barrett, 38-year-old John Ruiz and 39-year-old Audley Harrison since moving up to the heavyweight division. Dining on weak opposition won’t help Haye for this fight, because Wladimir is so much better than those guys.
The best opposition that Haye has been in with has come from his sparring partners Robert Helenius, David Price and Deontay Wilder while getting ready for this fight. Helenius reportedly wasn’t impressed with Haye’s power and did well against him in sparring. Wladimir has been in with much better fighters throughout his career and has had twice as many fights as Haye. That’s going to be a big advantage for Wladimir tonight, because Haye really needed a lot more experience against some quality fighters instead of the old guys that he’s been put in with before facing Wladimir. Haye has been selectively matched and that’s obviously kept him winning but it may come at a cost for Haye because he’s not been able to grow as a fighter.
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