DAVID HAYE'S date with destiny today could catapult him to superstardom, as a KO victory over Nikolay Valuev would make him the most marketable heavyweight since Mike Tyson was in his prime.
Good-looking, articulate boxers are not exactly falling off the shelves these days in a sport which is crying out for heroes. Boxing’s blue riband division has been moribund since Lennox Lewis retired six years ago.
At yesterday’s weigh-in at a Nuremberg shopping centre, Haye stood on the scales at 15 st 8 lbs, the biggest he has been in his career.
In contrast, Valuev nearly sent those scales into meltdown and at 22 st 8 lbs he has a full seven stone advantage.
If it fazed Haye he wasn’t showing it yesterday, hanging around the stage just long enough to say: “I won’t be able to sleep tonight I’m so excited. Just wait until I knock this bloke spark out.”
Forget the weight difference, the adage that a good big man always beats a good smaller man is garbage. And, anyway, Haye is patently the superior boxer.
The problem is he might need a step ladder to land anything threatening on Valuev, who has never been on the seat of his pants in 51 bouts.
If Haye becomes the first boxer to flatten Valuev his rising star will go orbital. But the chances of that happening are marginal.
Valuev has been force-fed a diet of also-rans and never-were-rans, but he can take a shot and with all his weight behind him he can probably fire some as well. But don’t be fooled by his record – Valuev’s mum could have beaten half of his opponents.
The sold-out signs went up weeks ago at the 8,000-capacity Nuremberg Arena and they were hanging off the rafters in the Mercado shopping centre yesterday.
Source: express.co.uk
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