By Scott Gilfoid: There’s been a slight change in Saturday’s lineup on he Marcos Maidana vs. Devon Alexander card at the Scottrade Center in Saint Louis, Missouri. Instead of unbeaten heavyweight prospect Deontay Wilder (20-0, 20 KO’s) facing journeyman Chris Koval in an eight round bout, Wilder will now be facing 40-year-old journeyman Marlon Hayes (23-10, 11 Ko’s) in eight rounds of action on the card.
It all amounts to being the same thing, though, because the highly experienced Hayes is equally tough and has been around. He should be able to give Wilder some badly needed rounds in this fight. Wilder has been crushing everyone that’s been win with him since he turned pro in 2008 after winning a Bronze medal in the 2008 Olympics for the United States. It’s been too easy for the 26-year-old 6’7″ Wilder because he’s beating everyone so effortlessly. Wilder needs a tough opponent that can extend him a little, and perhaps Haye is that guy.
There are a few negatives to Hayes lasting long in this fight, however,starting with his age. Haye is 40-years-old and that’s not exactly young for a heavyweight. Another issue is that Hayes has never fought at heavyweight before having fought much of his career at middleweight until recently moving up to cruiserweight. Moving up from cruiserweight to take on a huge heavyweight with one punch knockout power like Wilder is going to be BIG, BIG jump for Hayes and it’s probably not going to end well for him.
Another problem that Hayes has is that he’s not fought for a while and may have some rust on him. Indeed, Haye hasn’t fought since losing to Vadim Tokarev in October 2007. That’s about five years and it might be a little long for Hayes to have much left. The final thing that Hayes has going against him is he’s lost 10 out of his last 13 fights since 2001. That’s less important because he’s been in with some really good fighters, such as Robert Allen, Kingsley Ikeke, Elvir Muriqi, Danny Santiago, Jaidon Codrington, Robert Stieglitz, Charles Chavallo, Adonis Stevenson and Tokarev.
The one problem I have with Haye’s is his height. He’s only 5’9″ and will be giving up a lot of height and reach to the 6’7″ Wilder. It’s going to be tough for him to land anything I can imagine.
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