Lennox Lewis questions Haye’s need for bulking up

By Boxing News - 05/17/2016 - Comments

haye422By Scott Gilfoid: Former heavyweight world champion Lennox Lewis wonders whether David Haye (27-2, 25 KOs) needs to have focused so much on his strength and bulking up in his comeback to the sport. Lewis thinks the recent bulking up the 35-year-old Haye has done will come at a cost in effecting his speed.

Haye has added 17 pounds to his previously thin 210lb frame in his comeback. In his first fight since coming off a long 4-year layoff, the 227lb Haye used his new size to obliterate the over-matched Mark De Mori in one round last January.

Haye’s second fight of his comeback will be taking place this Saturday night against #14 WBO Arnold Gjergjaj (29-0, 21 KOs) at the O2 Arena in London, UK.

Haye’s next opponent Shannon Briggs will also be on the card to help get fans interested in a fight between him and Haye for the end of summer.

“I don’t think he needs the strength,” Lewis said to the Press Association Sport. “He should depend on his speed because he’s very good – his speed with his legs, good speed with his hands – and I think he should focus more on that, but this is what he feels he needs, he went out and got himself into great shape, got himself strong.”

I think the 6’3” Haye has little choice but to bulk up if he wants to mix it up with the big boys in the heavyweight division. At 210lbs, Haye was clearly too light to compete with the 240+lb heavyweights like Wladimir Klitschko.

It doesn’t work for fighters to be giving up over 30lbs to their opponents. Anthony Joshua, the IBF champion, has bulked up from 220 to close to 250, in just two years since turning pro. That’s also 30 pounds Joshua has put on his 6’6” frame. While I don’t think it has done much for Joshua’s hand speed in terms of improving it, I think it has made him harder to move around when hitting him and bumping into him. Joshua can possibly absorb heavy shots better at 250 than he did at 220.

That’s about the only improvement. He’s clearly slower than he was, and his stamina, which still hasn’t been tested at the pro level, is still an unknown at this point. Haye is in the same boat with the new weight that he’d added. Will Haye be able to carry that weight if one of his opponents is able to drag him into the deeper waters.

We’re going to find out eventually once Haye gets inside the ring with Briggs and then possibly Joshua if he can get past the 6’4”, 245lb Briggs. Haye probably won’t need to test his stamina in his fight against the slow as molasses Gjergjaj this Saturday night, because the big 6’5”, 244lbs fighter will have problems getting out of the first round, let alone making it to the 12th round. This is a mismatch on paper and it looks like another showcase fight for Haye rather than a match that was ever intended on being competitive.

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“He has his reasons for doing that. He’s been up against some big guys and he realizes there’s a strength difference, so he wants to really catch up to the rest of the world on his sense of strength,” said Lewis.

I’m not sure why Lewis thinks it’s a bad idea that Haye is bulking up. I mean, Lewis did the same thing during his pro career. In 1992, Lewis weighed 225lbs, and three years later, he was at 248 in 1995. That’s almost 25lbs heavier in just a short period of time for Lewis. He then spent the remainder of his career in the 240s and in a couple of fights, he was over 250. It seemed to help Lewis’ career for him to bulk up.

I think he was a good fighter when he was in his 220s as well though. Lewis was lightning fast when he took out the big puncher Donovan Ruddock with a right hand bomb in their fight in 1992. I’m not sure that the heavier version of Lewis would have had the speed to land that same punch without getting countered by one of Ruddock’s monstrously powerful left hooks.

Lewis did bulk up though in 1995, and he put on a lot more weight than Haye has. If Haye puts on 25lbs like Lewis did, we’ll be seeing him in the low 230s. I think that would be a good weight for him against the likes of Joshua, Briggs, Deontay Wilder and Luis Ortiz.