David Haye previews Joshua vs. Usyk & Fury vs. Wilder 3

By Boxing News - 08/24/2021 - Comments

By Scott Gilfoid: David Haye predicts IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua doing a total demolition job on challenger Oleksandr Usyk on September 25th to destroy the former undisputed cruiserweight champion within six rounds on the night.

Joshua vs. Usyk is headlining a Matchroom Boxing card at the Tottenham Hotspurs Stadium in North London.

In an odd comparison, Haye puts Usyk (18-0, 13 KOs) in the same boat as the robotic Andrew Golota when Lennox Lewis massacred him in a first round knockout in October 1997. Golota came into the Lewis fight, having lost consecutive contests against Riddick Bowe by disqualification.

Going into the Lewis fight, boxing fans didn’t know what to expect from the big Polish heavyweight Golota, as he appeared to mentally quit in both of his fights with Bowe.

Lewis showed the heavy-handed Golota that there were levels in boxing in flurrying on him in the first round to score a quick stoppage.

At the time, the win was a big deal, but some of the shine was taken off Lewis’ win when later Lamon Brewster did the same thing to Golota in knocking him out in the first round

Haye believes that Usyk will fall apart just like Golota once Joshua starts unloading on him on September 25th.  Usyk has never shown himself to be chinny in the past, and he’s not someone that will mentally implode the way Golota did.

Haye: Joshua obliterates Usyk

“AJ knocks Usyk out very conclusively,” said David Haye to Secondsout. “Left, right, jab, right cross that puts Usyk down or out, and then it’s done. 100% inside six rounds.

Image: David Haye previews Joshua vs. Usyk & Fury vs. Wilder 3

If it does go past six rounds, it’s because AJ wants it to go past six rounds. Yes, and because of what I saw of AJ in the Pulev fight,” said Haye when asked if he’s basing his prediction on how Usyk looked against Derek Chisora last October.

“That Pulev fight told me where AJ is right now in terms of patience-wise, and he’s in his prime now.

The same way Andrew Golota seemed like he was a danger to Lennox Lewis prior to their fight because he had a couple of tough fights with Riddick Bowe.

“No, Lennox went, ‘there are levels to this game.’ Bing, bing, bing, bing, go to sleep. That’s exactly what AJ is going to do [against Usyk].

“He’s going to go out there, ‘You’re a tricky southpaw and Olympic champion, good for you.

“Undisputed cruiserweight champion.’ Bang, bang, bang, bang, go to sleep, and that’s going to be pretty brutal,” said Haye in predicting a total massacre win for Joshua over the hapless Usyk.

It’s hard to take Haye seriously with his prediction because he’s coming from left field with his wacky view of how the Joshua vs. Usyk fight will play out, starting with his odd-ball comparison of Usyk with Golota. It makes this writer wonder if Haye followed Golota’s career or not.

The fact that Joshua was able to batter 40-year-old Kubrat Pulev doesn’t translate into AJ doing the same thing with Usyk.

Pulev was never great even in his prime, and by the time he fought Joshua last December, he was just a shell of the fighter he’d been eons ago.

The only thing Joshua proved in beating Pulev is that he can beat a guy similar to Eric Molina, a big guy with some pop, but not much in the way of talent.

A more realistic prediction on the Joshua-Usyk fight is for Joshua to have some early success against a timid Usyk and fall apart when he empties his gas tank by the eighth round.

Joshua will likely fall apart against Usyk like Tony Bellew did and wind up getting knocked out in the eighth round. Bellew totally gassed out against Usyk in the second half of their fight.

Fury vs. Wilder 3 = A toss-up fight

“There’s a chance of anything happening in heavyweight boxing, particularly when you punch as freakishly hard as Deontay Wilder does,” said Haye when asked if Wilder has a chance against Tyson Fury on October 9th.

“I don’t know if he can do that. He didn’t look much good in his last fight. He was completely outmatched.

“If it wasn’t Wilder in that last fight, and it was some other opponent, and it was won so convincingly by Fury, no one would be interested in seeing the fight.

“Obviously, there’s a rematch clause, and it’s mandated. We’re going to see if Fury can maintain the momentum. How many fights has he looked great in a row?

“In a couple [fights], he’s looked good, and then he sorts of dips down,” Haye said in noticing a pattern in Fury’s fights in which he looks lackluster in his fights after a big win.

“And he’s had a couple of performances where he didn’t look as great as he did in his previous ones.

“Those fights where he beat Wladimir and comeback fights after big gaps out. He wasn’t quite getting his flow.

“And he gets a controversial draw against Wilder. He nearly lost and got knocked down. Then he comes back and then does an unbelievable performance against Wilder in Vegas.

“I was there ringside, and I was, ‘Oh, how do you beat this guy?’ He’s just an absolute specimen with the way he put the heat on Wilder.

“Was that Wilder’s best night? Was that his worst night? Does it even matter? We’ll find out in the third fight,” said Haye.

Interestingly, Haye isn’t predicting the Fury vs. Wilder 3 fight, and you can understand why.

With the rumors of Fury getting beaten up by sparring partners Jared Anderson and Efe Ajagba in camp and then suddenly coming down with COVID-19, it reeks of ‘The Gypsy King’ unfit to be fighting a dangerous guy like Wilder right now.

Many boxing fans believe that Fury never had COVID, and he just used that as an excuse to hit the reset button on his training camp, which had gone terribly for him. It’s like someone going through military boot camp twice in a row due to them doing so poorly the first time around.

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