By Scott Gilfoid: If/when former two division world champion David Haye (28-2, 26 KOs) faces IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (18-0, 18 KOs), he says he’ll train for that fight the same way he’s been training lately. Haye has been having fun in getting ready for his March 4 clash against cruiserweight Tony Bellew.
Instead of putting in a grueling camp for the Bellew fight, Haye has taken it easy and not worn out his 36-year-old body. Haye says it’s working in training this way, and his plan is to do the same thing if he ever gets a fight against Joshua in the future. The two of them will need to keep winning for them to have a chance at fighting each other.
“If I was fighting Anthony Joshua, I would be doing exactly the same training, because I believe this works for me. The training of old doesn’t work for me anymore. My body breaks down,” said Haye to Sky Sports News HQ.
I don’t think it makes sense for Haye to wear himself out in training for the Joshua fight. The smart thing for Haye to do is work on his cardio and fast combinations with power. The guys that have done well against Joshua in the past were ones that used an in and out attacking style to get in close, nail him with two or three big shots, and then get away.
Joshua isn’t particularly fast of hand, and he lacks explosiveness with his shots. He kind of pushes his punches, as if he’s meeting resistance in the air. The only time Joshua can get power on his punches is when he’s coming forward against a stationary opponent, who either stands with his back against the ropes or in the middle of the ring. Joshua eats up stationary fighters.
It’s strange how Joshua’s opponents don’t study his past fights well enough to realize that they can’t stand with their backs against the ropes being immobile. Of course, a lot of that has to do with the match-making that is being done for Joshua by his promoter Eddie Hearn. He’s been feeding him guys like Eric Molina, Gary Cornish, Charles Martin and Dominic Breazeale instead of good fighters.
“Although I haven’t fought in competitive fights for five years, I’m fresh, I haven’t taken any big punches, my body is in good condition and I’m ready to go. I feel like I’ve got a whole career ahead of me,” said Haye.
Haye has fought twice since making a comeback last year. He’s beaten Arnold Gjergjaj and Mark De Mori. Those were both heavyweight contenders at the time that Haye fought them. Haye’s last competitive fight on paper was against Dereck Chisora in 2012. Joshua’s only competitive fight on paper was his fight against the injured Dillian Whyte in 2015.
The 17 fights on Joshua’s resume have been mismatches with him facing guys with little to no talent, and no real threat to beating him. A lot of fuss has been made on Joshua’s April 29 contest against Wladimir Klitschko. But even that match-up favors Joshua to a high degree, because Wladimir hasn’t fought in 2 years, and he’s coming off of a 12 round decision loss to Tyson Fury. Wladimir looked past it in that fight. His brother Vitali Klitschko says that he wasn’t focused, but I don’t think that was the problem. The big problem appeared to be that Wladimir’s ability to hit a moving – or even a stationary target – was completely gone. Call it age or whatever, Wladimir couldn’t hit Fury with any of his power punches in that fight.