By J. Keenan: On September 28th David “The Hayemaker” Haye will face Tyson Fury at the MEN Arena in Manchester in a showdown that is being Promoted as the biggest British heavyweight fight since Lennox Lewis vs Frank Bruno but can this fight live up to the hype machine that it has become?
I have to start this article by saying I wasn’t really interested in this fight when the rumors started kicking off about it happening. Even when it was finally announced, I still wasn’t that interested. What did catch my attention was the press conference, and no it wasn’t Tyson Fury’s desperate bid to sell the fight; it was David Haye’s cool and relaxed manor that caught my attention. It was far different from his usual brash and arrogant character that he has previously displayed at press conferences.
A lot of critics said after the conference that Haye was tongue tied at Tyson Fury’s fast witted put downs, but I don’t think that is true. I believe that Haye was simply letting Tyson sell the fight. I could go as far as saying that Haye put on a wonderful piece of sports psychology. Fury honestly believed that he had the better of Haye but if you look back you will notice Haye had a little grin on his face that same grin he will wear on fight night when he delivers a devastating if not brutal Knockout victory. I will get to the reasons for my prediction shortly but for now lets look at the psychology behind the characters that were displayed by the fighters at the press conference and on the sky sports TV show ringside.
I wasn’t impressed with Tyson Fury’s character whatsoever at the conference with him jumping around and saying things that don’t make much sense. But I do understand that he has to sell the fight to the buying public, and maybe to convince himself he has a chance with Haye. However, on ringside Fury would also have you believe that he is the “Greatest Heavyweight of all time,” and promoter Mick Hennessy accepting his statement made it more ridiculous.
Truth is Tyson Fury hasn’t beaten anyone who is in the same league as David Haye. Some will argue Tyson defeated former British Heavyweight Champion Derek Chisora, but that still does not give you the relevant experience when your are going up against a former 2 weight world champion. Fury himself mentioned that when Haye fought and stopped Chisora last year that he only beat a journey man as he had been defeated by Tyson first. Again, I find this delusional when this so called journeyman (Derek Chisora) went 12 rounds with Vitali Klitschko. And if you watched that fight you could agree that Chisora put in a valiant effort that night, so Chisora shouldnt be considered a journey man.
Apart from Fury’s sales pitch there’s no evidence backing that he even has a chance in this fight. If anything, Fury has shown a weakness for over hand rights to the chin. Fury was knocked down and hurt in a bout against Steve Cunningham last April. This making a strong argument or blueprint on how to beat the undefeated Fury.
Haye on the other hand was somewhat calm, and collected pretty much not giving anything away. Haye lost a unanimous decision to Wladimir Klitschko in 2011), and he learned the harsh lesson of walking before you can crawl that night, and it seems to have changed him for the better.
When asked why he thought he would beat Fury, Haye answered with no bragging or witty putdowns, saying what I believe are solid home truths by saying that Fury is indeed extremely clumsy. Haye referenced a Youtube video of Fury hitting himself in one of his previous fights, and that he nearly tripped trying to stand on his chair at the press conference.
Haye also pointed out that Fury has no athletic ability, and overall just hasn’t got much movement. In other words, Haye hasn’t seen anything in Fury’s locker that can threaten him; not unless you count the sheer difference in weight, but Haye won’t be standing still long enough to get leaned on. So there you have it. Is Haye truly just tongue-tied and lost for words due to Fury’s overconfident character? Or is he as cool calm and collected as he has told us? Is Fury’s bragging and somewhat overconfidence for real. Has he got Haye at the right time and thinking twice?
Verdict
As I stated at the beginning of my article, I truly believe we are going to see Haye deliver a devastating if not brutal KO within 6 rounds. Fury just isn’t good enough. Haye possesses too much speed and too much movement, and overall too much power. Fury will look good for the first 3 rounds, and maybe display a similar game plan to the one he used against Martin Rogan and Kevin Johnson (Fury stopped Martin Rogan in April 2012 and defeated Kevin Johnson by a 12 round unanimous decision) in December 2012) in fights where we saw Tyson box smarter. But as “Iron” Mike Tyson once said, “They all have a game plan until they get hit,” and how true that statement is when talking about this fight.
Comments are closed.