(CNN International) - Vitali Klitschko successfully defended his WBC heavyweight title against American Kevin Johnson in Bern and then looked ahead to a super-bout next year against new WBA champion David Haye.
Ukrainian Klitschko produced a workmanlike, but hardly inspired performance, to outpoint Johnson in 12 rounds on Saturday night.
It was his third defense of the WBC version of the crown since he reclaimed the title after an injury layoff.
His brother Wladimir holds the IBF and WBO titles, but it’s Briton Haye who offers the route to a unification bout that would capture the imagination of the wider sporting public.
The flamboyant Haye beat Russian giant Nikolai Valuev to claim the WBA title last month and Klitschko said he was ready for a clash in 2010.
(By Bob Hurst, Chronicle) – CHICAGO — Paulie Malignaggi finally got his revenge, and let the world know that he still has a lot left.
Malignaggi, from Brooklyn, avenged his controversial Aug. 22 loss to Houston’s Juan Diaz at the Toyota Center with a unanimous decision in front of a crowd of 4,906 fans at the UIC Pavilion on Saturday night. He claimed the NABO junior welterweight crown with the win.
The Chicago venue was more to Malignaggi’s liking, after he felt that he didn’t get a fair result in the first meeting with Diaz. Before the Aug. 22 bout, Malignaggi voiced his displeasure with the selection of judges. Diaz won a unanimous decision, but one of the judges, Gale Van Hoy, scored the fight 118-110. The other two judges scorecards were closer. Malignaggi complained after the fight, and eventually earned a rematch.
This time, judges Mauro DiFiore, Thomas Miller and Michael Pernick each scored the fight 116-111 in favor of Malignaggi.
“Juan fought a good fight,” Malignaggi said. “He’s such a cool dude. I feel vindicated. I feel that I’m a better fighter than Juan. Juan and his team were victimized by the fact that they thought I was finished.
(By J. Michael Falgoust, USA TODAY) - ATLANTIC CITY — No longer can Paul Williams call himself the sport’s most avoided fighter.
Sergio Martinez met him head-on Saturday night at Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall.
“They called him the most feared man in the world, but I didn’t have any fear at all in this bout,” said Martinez, who overcame a first-round knockdown to drop Williams at the first-round bell en route to losing a disputed majority decision in a non-title middleweight bout in front of 2,927.
In a Fight of the Year candidate that was as brutal as it was entertaining, judge Julie Lederman scored it even at 114 and Lynn Carter had it 115-113 for Williams. Pierre Benoist, however, saw it 119-110 for Williams. He gave Martinez, who holds a major belt at junior middleweight (154), the first two rounds but gave the next 10 to Williams.
Williams threw 340 more total punches, according to CompuBox estimates, but landed 31% to the Argentine’s 40%.
There were furious exchanges throughout, most notably in the second, third and fifth rounds in which Martinez (44-2-2, 24 KOs) rocked Williams (38-1, 27 KOs) by walking him into lead right hooks.
(By Bryan Graham, SI.Com) PHILADELPHIA - Bernard Hopkins went home Wednesday and didn’t let down the fans who’d waited years for his return.
Hopkins won a lopsided unanimous-decision over Mexico’s Enrique Ornelas at the Liacouras Center on the campus of Temple University — less than one mile from the Raymond Rosen projects where the former middleweight and light heavyweight champion grew up.
Hopkins, who turns 45 on Jan. 15, was cautious throughout a cagey opening and became more offensive-minded as the fight moved forward. He landed nearly twice as many punches as Ornelas (205 to 113), among them 64 body shots.
The judges’ scorecards — 120-108, 119-109 and 118-110 — were fair bellwethers of the action. SI.com had it 118-110.
(SkySports.Com) - The win was the Montreal-based Romanian’s second against his Mexican-born opponent in a little over a year – the first seeing Bute score a unanimous points win in controversial circumstances.
On that occasion, in Bute’s adopted home city, he survived a final round knockdown with a count that was timed independently at 21 seconds before gaining the verdict.
However, matters were more clear cut on Saturday as Andrade failed to beat referee Benjy Estevez’s count three seconds from the end of the fourth.
The victory is the 25th in Bute’s unbeaten career and was also the 20th knockout – the southpaw not part of the 168-pound division’s Super Six tournament that features fellow belt holders Carl Froch and Andre Ward.
(By Ryan Greene, Las Vegas Sun) - His unique story of being both an up-and-comer in both the fight world and the spiritual world helped put Yuri Foreman on the national radar.
That legend only grew on Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, as the 29-year-old Israeli claimed the WBA super welterweight belt from Daniel Santos with a unanimous decision victory.
“By the 11th or 12th round, my corner was telling me that I was ahead,” Foreman said. “And I still didn’t really want to believe them.”
Calling it a childhood dream come true, Foreman became the first Jewish fighter in several decades to form himself into a world champion.
(George Willis, Dailysun.Com) Las Vegas - The legend of Manny Pacquiao reached a new level last night, not only with his winning a world title in a record seventh weight division, but also proving he’s clearly the most exciting fighter in boxing.
Using a brilliant combination of speed and power, Pacquiao (50-3-2, 38 KOs) administered a systematic beating to Miguel Cotto before referee Kenny Bayless mercifully stopped the fight 55 seconds into the 12th round.
“I didn’t know where the [punches] were coming [from],” Cotto said, “and I didn’t protect myself from those punches.”
(Foxsports.com) The heavyweight division. History has always held this at the pinnacle of boxing excellence, whether the best fighters in the game were plying their trade as heavyweights or not, holding a piece of this title is always something special. As a boxing fan, it is always interesting to note how far the pendulum has swung since Mike Tyson’s career ebbed away and Lennox Lewis hung up his gloves. No longer are the biggest fights fought by the biggest men. The general public have of late has been captivated by dynamos that tear through weight categories and reign in mythical pound-for-pound debates.
David Haye wasn’t overly impressive against Nikolai Valuev. (Alex Grimm / Getty Images)
It has often been said that the heavyweight division is in the doldrums, that the Klitschko brothers are the best of a bad bunch, and the division needs to be rejuvenated or reinvented if it is to survive. Cue March 8, 2008 and David Haye dispatches fellow cruiserweight champion Enzo Maccarinelli in two rounds to unify three of the major belts at the 200-pound limit. After the fight he issues a statement of intent, a run at the heavyweight division that he claimed he could unify and rule with an iron fist. And then it went quiet.
(Jamaica Observer) HARTFORD, Connecticut (CMC) – Glen Johnson of Jamaica failed in his bid to claim the World Boxing Council light-heavyweight belt, when he lost a 12-round bout for the vacant title to Chad Dawson of the United States by a unanimous decision on Saturday at the XL Center.
Johnson, who celebrates his 41st birthday in January, was born in Clarendon and is also known as “The Road Warrior”.
He is a former International Boxing Federation light-heavyweight champion, and was looking to reclaim past glory with another World title.
But Dawson (29-0, 17 KOs) astutely defended his International Boxing Organisation belt and seized the WBC title with a 12-round unanimous decision over Johnson (49-13-2, 33 KOs).
All three judges favoured the hometown boy with scores of 115-113, 115-113, 117-111.
(By Chris Baldwin, November 5, 2009) -On Saturday, November 7th, 2009, something very strange is happening in Nuremberg, Germany. For the first time in what seems like a very, very long time, there will be a fight for the Heavyweight Championship of the World that people are actually interested in and for a plethora of different reasons. Millions of people will be watching David Haye challenge Nikolay Valuev for the WBA version of the most prestigious title in all of boxing.
Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of London’s David Haye.
Haye is a man who invokes a response from almost anyone and everyone involved in the sport. The Bermondsey man may be many things, but a shrinking violet he most certainly is not. ‘Distasteful’ is probably the kindest thing that can be said about his attempts to lure Wladimir Klitschko into a title fight, with the wearing of a t-shirt adorned with a print of the severed heads of both Klitschko’s arguably the lowest of several low points. Regardless of the morality of Haye’s tactics, with opinion split between the amused (including this writer) and the outraged, the effect was seemingly the desired one with an incensed Wladimir responding to Haye’s goading by agreeing to a title fight with Haye scheduled for May this year. Unfortunately (or fortunately as some astute observers pointed out), David suffered a back injury in training and had to withdraw from the fight, leaving Wladimir free to dispose of late stand-in and previously unbeaten Ruslan Chagaev (now 25-1-1, 17 KO’s) in nine one-sided, routine rounds. Whether or not the collapse of Setanta Sports, the sole paymaster of David Haye’s bouts, had any effect on his withdrawal has been subject to some speculation; speculation furiously denied by Haye in October’s edition of Boxing Monthly.
Whatever the full reasons for the withdrawal, Haye himself had seemingly backed himself into a corner, and with Wladmir launching a furious tirade towards Haye in the aftermath of the Chagaev victory, Haye’s prospects at immediate heavyweight glory seemed bleaker than ever, with a seemingly vulnerable Haye at the apparent mercy of the brother’s Klitschko. Wladimir stubbornly refused to offer Haye a rescheduled date for their proposed bout and, to the surprise of absolutely no-one, Wlad’s brother Vitali, he of the far sturdier chin and huge reach and height advantage of the brothers, stepped into the breach and offered David a shot at glory through him instead; a shot that Haye seemed destined to have to take or face relative oblivion.
With that fight seemingly set in stone and promotional materials being prepared, Haye pulled a quite extraordinary rabbit out of the hat. That rabbit came in the gigantic form of the WBA titlist, Nikolay Valuev. From absolutely nowhere, Haye managed to negotiate himself a bout with the only titleholder not named Klitschko and, in one fell swoop, left Wlad, Vitali and the world of boxing speechless. Publicly denouncing the proposed terms offered to him by Vitali as ‘reducing him to the status of a slave,’ Haye found himself in a position to fight for a recognised version of the heavyweight title against quite insurmountable odds, and in the opinion of many, against a far more beatable foe than either Klitschko brother might have been.
There are those who believe that this fight shouldn’t be happening at all. Haye (22-1-0, 22 KO) is to all intents and purposes a novice at the weight, having had just two fights at 200lb+ and spending the rest of his professional career at cruiserweight. The naysayers have despaired at the way in which Haye has negated the tried and tested route of defeating contenders and making his way through the divisional ranks, instead relying on an extraordinary amount of self-promotion of both the tasteful and the tasteless variety.
Of course, what most of these folks have conveniently forgotten is that the usual rules rarely apply to fighters who, like Haye, skip divisions having seemingly outgrown another. Haye’s last two bouts at cruiserweight saw him rip away the WBC and WBA baubles from Jean Marc Mormeck (33-3-0, 22 KO’s) in Mormeck’s backyard of Paris, France, with Haye recovering from a hard knockdown in the fourth round to brutally stop his man early in the seventh before then obliterating Enzo Maccarinelli (then 28-1-0, 21KO’s) inside five minutes at London’s O2 Arena in March 2008 to relieve the Welshman of his WBO strap and to unify three of the four recognised ‘world’ titles.
When another Welshman, Joe Calzaghe (46-0-0, 32 KO’s), unified three of the four belts at super-middleweight in November 2007, absolutely no-one had any qualms whatsoever when he moved up in weight to challenge American light-heavyweight legend Bernard Hopkins (49-5-1, 32 KO’s); in fact, this was exactly the kind of action which he had been criticised for not taking earlier in his career. Yet Haye’s ability to garner his ‘undeserved’ title shot after just two heavyweight fights has seen scorn poured from a variety of credible and incredible quarters- indeed, Haye has invited almost as much bile as any fighter in recent memory, with The Ring’s Ivan Goldman claiming this month that, “…blab-master Haye…has managed to win the title of British Heavyweight hot air champ. Haye’s excuse just won’t fly.”
What makes this scorn even more inexplicable (notwithstanding the fact that Goldman, in slating Haye and apparently without a single trace of irony, was in the process of building up perennially out-of-shape and thoroughly under whelming ‘contender’ Chris Arreola, last seen crying in the ring after an outclassing at the hands of Vitali Klitschko) is that the heavyweight division is practically on life support. Ruled with an iron fist by the good but far from exceptional Klitschko brothers, the dearth of heavyweight talent since the retirement of LennoxLewis has seen the division enter an almost terminal decline, with the last few years seeing a motley collection of mediocre, out-of-shape human punch-bags stepping out of the shadows to make title ‘challenges,’ with almost each and every one of them ending in abject failure.
When this writer recalls the appalling ‘spectacle’ of Sultan Ibragimov’s (22-1-1, 17 KO’s) unification bout with Wladimir Klitschko (53-3-0, 47 KO’s), the reaction is one of involuntary wincing twelve action packed rounds consisting of ‘power parries’ and spectator catcalls. If ever a division needed a focal point, then that division is the heavyweight division circa 2009.
People can say what they wish about David Haye, but he is not stupid. Arrogant, brash and abrasive, perhaps, but he is no fool. What makes his ability to have forced the hands of the top guys at heavyweight even more remarkable is that, until recently, Haye was largely unknown in the wider world outside of boxing enthusiasts.
Unknown, that is, to those outside of the UK. Haye is one of the few British boxers of recent years to have benefited quite markedly from a high media profile here. After a superb amateur career, culminating with a silver medal in the heavyweight category of the 2001 World Championships in Belfast, Ireland, when he lost in the final by 3rd round TKO to Cuban Odlanier Solis (having first dropped Solis and seeming on the verge of victory), Haye turned pro in 2002 and saw his first fight, a two round target practise session against journeyman legend Tony Booth (he of 166 fights at last count) televised by the BBC.
More exposure followed, with the BBC showcasing Haye’s seemingly unstoppable progress through the cruiserweight ranks. His first ten fights were aired by the BBC, culminating in an impressive three round destruction of former IBF cruiserweight boss, ‘King’ Arthur Williams (38-9-1 at the time), in April 2004. Haye, by now 9-0 with 9 straight KO’s, looked imposing and powerful from the outset, unleashing a ferocious onslaught upon his opponent, who looked shell-shocked from the opening bell. In the third, Haye trapped his man in the corner and landed a series of crunching right hands to the jaw and head, and with Williams in trouble against the ropes, one more huge left hook was enough to persuade the referee to call a halt to the action seconds before the end of the third round and giving Haye a mightily impressive victory, albeit against an aging and somewhat gun-shy opponent.
His next fight, a horrific loss to Carl ‘The Cat’ Thompson (then 34-6-0, 25 KO’s) in September 2004, came therefore as a tremendous shock to many seasoned observers. Haye, buoyed no doubt by ten straight victories in double quick time (none of his first ten fights went past four rounds), went after Thompson like a man who was double parked, but found Carl in typically resilient mood, happy to soak up Haye’s bombs and bide his time. His time, to the shock of almost all present and watching live, came very quickly, with Haye almost completely spent by the third round and who was by the fifth taking punishment by the proverbial bucket load from the former WBO champion before referee Gerry O’Connor called a halt to the carnage seconds before the end of the fifth stanza. Thompson, that most underrated and gutsy of operators, had snatched away Haye’s aura and shattered the man who was supposedly the brightest prospect in British Boxing. The road back seemed long and arduous.
Quite surprisingly, Haye recovered relatively quickly from the shock of the Thompson reverse and racked up four straight KO victories, all inside three rounds, before meeting Ukrainian Alexander Gurov (38-4-1 at the time) for the European Cruiserweight title. Gurov, an experienced former world title challenger, was overwhelmed by Haye’s power-punching, and failed to last a single round. Three defences followed, including a unanimous and wide decision win over Ismail Abdul (then 27-9-1)- the only man to date to see the final bell after tussling with the Briton- and an impressive 9th round victory against Giacobbe Fragomeni. Fragomeni, undefeated in 21 at the time, extended Haye into the ninth round but at the bell to start the stanza found Haye, cut over the left eye, in determined mood. Haye opened witha left hook to the body and followed up with two huge right hands to Fragomeni’s head. Staggered, the Italian fell back but found Haye upon him again, opening up with more right and left hooks until he crumpled onto the canvas in a heap against the ropes. Up at the count of five, Giacobbe looking confused and disheartened, turned to his corner for inspiration and saw his trainer on the ring apron, beckoning him back to the sanctuary of his stool. The referee duly stopped the contest some twenty seconds into the ninth round.
This victory, made the more impressive by Fragomeni’s subsequent capture of the WBC Cruiserweight title in October last year, set up Haye’s challenge for Jean Marc Mormeck’s WBC and WBA world baubles in Paris on November 10th, 2007. Mormeck, (33-3-0, 22KO’s), came into the fight on the back of a hard fought and closely contested rematch victory over fellow cruiserweight titlist, O’Neil Bell (then 25-1-1), and was a warm favourite to retain his titles in his own backyard with the consensus being that Haye would be dangerous early but fade late and allow Mormeck his opportunity.
Haye, fighting fairly cagily by his own standards, took two of three fairly uneventful opening rounds but found himself scrabbling around on the canvas in the fourth, having shipped two huge right hands to the jaw and head past a typically low left hand guard and slipping on a wet pad in the corner. On his knees and clearly stunned, Haye took an eight count before rising and managing to weather the storm and get back to his corner to recuperate. The fifth was another tough round for the challenger, with Mormeck throwing bombs in a bid to get Haye out of there and Haye spending much of his time relying on his exceptional footwork to get out of trouble. Early in the sixth, however, it seemed that the momentum had definitively shifted, as Mormeck (somewhat surprisingly) seemed to have run badly out of steam, as if he had punched himself out. Haye came on strong and took the round, then exploded into life in the seventh, catching Jean Marc with a crunching right hand to the body which rocked the champion onto his heels. A right hook to the head was followed by a ferocious right uppercut to the jaw which sent the Frenchman reeling towards the ropes. As Mormeck struggled to stay on his feet, Haye skipped forward and threw a wide, looping right detonated on the side of the Mormeck’s face and sent him sprawling to the canvas. Up at the count of eight, eyes glazed and with jelly legs, referee Guido Cavalleri waved off the action and signalled a new cruiserweight world champion.
In the immediate aftermath of the fight, Haye signaled his heavyweight intent in no uncertain terms. Talking to a watching UK audience on Setanta and fellow British cruiserweight titlist Enzo Maccarinelli, who was guest summarising for the broadcaster, Haye told the world that they had just seen his last fight at cruiserweight and that the time had come to move up to the heavyweight division. It had long been known that Haye, always in pristine physical condition, had long struggled to make the cruiserweight weight division for a long, long time. Indeed, he blamed his struggle to recover from the hard knockdown in the fourth to ‘boiling down to the weight.’
Of course, Haye was proven incorrect, in that he did go on to fight once more at cruiserweight, facing Enzo Maccarinelli in London in March 2008 in an attempt to unify the WBO title with his newly acquired WBC and WBA titles. The fight garnered huge publicity in the UK and was billed by many as the biggest domestic fight since Eubank-Benn II in 1993. Enzo (28-1-0 21KO’s) had almost as much television exposure as Haye, with numerous fights shown on terrestrial channel ITV and plenty of further exposure as the main undercard feature on Joe Calzaghe bouts (with both men trained by Joe’s father, Enzo Calzaghe). Hard hitting and seemingly much improved on the chinny banger who was sparked by Lee Swaby as an up-and-coming prospect in 2000, odds-makers in the UK could barely separate the pair prior to the bout.
In the end, the fight proved a complete mismatch. Haye, a former amateur foe of Maccarinelli, entered the ring in calm and composed fashion, clearly revelling in a packed, fervent O2 arena. Enzo, on the other hand, looked positively petrified as he walked to the ring; a terror that looked well justified, based on the events which unfolded.
Haye, having spent the first round feeling his opponent out, came out with some purpose in the second, clearly motivated by a small cut which had opened up above his eye. After finding Enzo with a sharp right hand midway through the round, he connected again with a huge right hand soon after and sent Maccarinelli backwards towards a corner. Haye quickly moved in for the kill, unleashing a ferocious torrent of blows before ultimately sending Enzo flat onto his back in his corner. After rising unsteadily to his feet, he was called forward by the referee and promptly undertook a passable Zab Judah impression, swaying wonderfully into the referee’s chest before drifting back onto his heels and into a standing daze, with the referee rightly calling the fight off with less than a minute to go in the second and in spite of the promptings of Joe Calzaghe, who can be seen on the footage looking suitably disgusted when his friend fails to recover in time and duly stomping off in a huff.
Which brings us to November 7th. This time, Haye has kept his post-fight promise and really is now seriously campaigning in the heavyweight division. The question to be asked is what, if anything, has Haye’s career to date shown as to his prospects of upsetting the giant Russian?
The most accurate answer appears to be ‘not much’. What we can say with a degree of certainty is that Haye appears to have a definite vulnerability around the whiskers. In the build up to the Maccarinelli fight, this author simply forecasted that ‘in a battle of chinny bangers, the result depends simply on who lands first.’ Whilst Haye prevailed that night, there is plenty of other evidence to support the proposition that Haye has a suspect beard; Mormeck had him down and badly hurt, as did Lolenga Mock back in the nether regions of Haye’s early career. Neither of these men are exactly noted punchers.
Also inflicting a knockdown on Haye was Monte Barrett; only the second heavyweight Haye has actually fought as a pro to date after a one-round blitz of Polish journeyman, Tomasz Bonin in April 2007. Admittedly, Haye did put Barrett on the floor five times en route to a straightforward victory, but this does not exactly bode well for Haye’s prospects at the weight. Barrett is as small as they come, might generously be described as somewhat past his best and his best moment of the entire bout (apart from the KD in the fifth which referee Jamie Davis inexplicably ruled a slip) was a triple-salco with quadruple-toe-loop entry to the ring via the top rope prior to the opening bell.
What we can also dismiss are the ludicrous claims of those who wish to claim that Haye is a ‘bottler.’ This claim has no basis in fact whatsoever, save in the minds of those who believe that every injury related pullout in recent boxing history is due to almost anything but said injury. Quite how a man who has fought for world titles against reigning champions in their own backyard can be portrayed as a coward is beyond this writer. The era of keyboard warriors continues apace, it seems.
Then, of course, there is the Thompson blowout. Many have used this fight, in which Haye was effectively felled by a jab, as further evidence of David’s inability to take a punch. In truth, this is too simplistic a presumption. Haye was beaten because he was absolutely knackered- he had completely and utterly punched himself out.
If anything, the Thompson fight points to a degree of suspect stamina, though this is hardly a consolation to those looking for reasons to back Haye against Valuev. To those who have followed Haye’s career from the start, the Thompson loss had one clear and noticeable affect on David Haye; he is always conscious of saving energy. In the early days, Haye simply piled forward, looking to overwhelm opponents. The truth is that he fell in love with his power (more of which later) and the Thompson loss taught him to conserve himself far more than previously. What this means in practise is that he picks his shots far more than he once did and, contrary to popular belief and somewhat in spite of his knockout percentage, Haye isn’t really that aggressive a fighter. He tends to throw punches in clusters and then use his excellent footwork to get out of the way of any incoming- a good idea considering how infuriatingly low he likes to hold his left hand throughout his fights. The truth is, despite his persistent bluster, anyone expecting a thrill-a-minute ride against Valuev is likely to be disappointed.
What Haye undoubtedly has in abundance, however, is power, especially in the right hand. When Haye opens up, very few of his opponents have been able to handle Haye’s power shots; including both heavies he has fought thus far (with a total of nine knock-downs in a measly six rounds). In fact, his KO% is a remarkable 95%. This would tend to indicate, and that is really all we can go on at this point, that his power is carrying through from cruiserweight. This is Haye’s big, big hope and, aside from a speed advantage over the vast majority of heavyweights, the main thrust behind any argument supporting a successful transition to the higher weight class. Haye throws quick shots, certainly by comparison to most of the other cumbersome, out-of-shape behemoths currently ‘gracing’ the division today, and if his power carries, then he has every chance of succeeding and following in the steps of the great Lennox Lewis as the next British heavyweight champion.
As stated earlier, Haye is a lot of things, but he is not stupid. He is banking it seems, almost completely, on being able to hurt whomever he hits at heavy as he did at cruiser. In this regard, he has spent months now badmouthing Valuev with the express intention of drawing him man into a brawl; a brawl Haye clearly fancies that his superior speed and hard punching can see him prevail in. Describing Nikolay as ‘ugly’ and ‘the beast’, he reportedly told BBC Sport:
“He (Valuev) is the ugliest thing I have ever seen. I have watched Lord of the Rings and films with strange looking people, but to look like he does is pretty shocking.”
More recently, Haye put together a mock press conference, in which a giant man in a mask played the part of Valuev and culminated in what was frankly a juvenile face off witha cardboard cut out of his opponent, with David duly punching off the head (already lacerated apparently) in front of a no doubt bemused gaggle of press reporters.
Haye’s methods may not exactly be to everyone’s tastes, and this writer for one is under no illusions that many, many people who watch this fight will do so in the hope of seeing Haye sparked unconscious, but his reasoning is clear and, in principle, his logic is sound. Valuev is a huge man, listed by Boxrec at seven foot tall (though some sources have him at 7 feet 2) and regularly weighs in at considerably over 300 lbs- giving him around a foot in height and 100+ lb weight advantage. It seems highly unlikely, then that Haye, himself hardly small at 6 feet 3 and 220lb, can outbox the giant Russian or try to out-jab opponents as he often could do as a cruiser.
Even if he felt he could out-box Nikolay, Haye might be well advised not to bother himself. Many of Valuev’s most recent fights have been close, utterly uninspiring efforts culminating latterly in a frankly shocking performance over what is left of the legend that is Evander Holyfield in December last year. Holyfield, then 46 and fighting simply to pay monies owed to children and ex-wives in divorce and alimony payments, is some thirteen years removed from the man who stunned Mike Tyson at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas to regain a version of the heavyweight crown, was expected to crumble meekly in the face of his giant opponent. Incredibly, Evander stunned those watching by putting in a performance that was at worst competitive or at best, in the opinion of some seasoned observers, sufficient to win the fight (this writer included).
Scores of 116-112, 115-114 ,and 114-114, were enough to see the Russian home by the skin of his teeth, but what became lost in the aftermath of a typically gutsy Holyfield effort, and the praise that followed, was the true scale of just how appallingly bad Valuev had performed against a man he should, at this stage of their respective careers, be hammering with consummate ease. His performance was utterly rank, and it wouldn’t be too far fetched to suggest that had the fight been in the US, Holyfield might well have expected to take the verdict.
The truth of the matter is that Nikolay, for all his physical attributes, is a very ordinary heavyweight champion. He is a useful boxer but far from a brilliant one. His fights tend to descend rather quickly into squally, niggly affairs with a lot of clinching and not a lot of clean punching.
Haye’s chances of victory largely depend on a number of factors. It is difficult to envisage a scenario in which Haye wins this on points, with hometown (of sorts) advantage lying with the Russian. It seems to this writer at least that Haye needs a KO to get a result.
Can he get it? Well, that depends. If Haye has succeeded in aggravating Nikolay sufficiently to draw him into a brawl, then he may well prevail. Even then, he would have to hope that his power is sufficient to hurt his enormous opponent, and that is certainly no given either. On top of this, there is a fairly good chance that Valuev, if he hits Haye, will put him to sleep in short order. It is impossible to imagine that Valuev will fail in denting Haye’s chin where men almost half his size have already succeeded.
Most UK odds layers have Haye a prohibitive 4/6 favourite to prevail. This writer isn’t so sure they have it right, especially considering the improbability of Haye winning a decision if the fight goes the distance. Valuev is likely to smother and spoil at every opportunity, as has been his modus operandi thus far, and that spells danger for Haye, who will need to keep enough distance to land his big bombs whilst keeping sufficiently close to prevent Valuev teeing off on those rare occasions he lets his punches go.
If Haye’s power carries to the weight, against a genuinely huge heavyweight, we expect him to prevail in the mid to late rounds. If it doesn’t, he’s in for a very, very long night and the road to heavyweight redemption will seem longer than ever.
