For all the weirdness of fighting someone who was taller at 12 – 6ft 4in – than he is now at 29, David Haye is alarmingly relaxed about the prospect of sharing a ring with Nikolai Valuev in Germany on Saturday night. The south Londoner is either kidding himself or the Russian is in for an embarrassing night of swinging, missing, hurting and losing his World Boxing Association heavyweight title from the stark vantage point of 7ft above the ground.
I suspect, against the odds and perceptions, it will be the latter. Time spent in Haye's company the past week has seen him ease off on the mind games and stunts, which are intend as much to ramp up pay-per-view hits as unsettle the champion, while he settles down to the serious business of staying calm. At no point does he give the impression of being led to the gallows.
"I'm pretty good when it comes to the psychology of boxing," Haye says. "Some guys, a week or two weeks out, you can see a buzz in their faces. They're bouncing around, using up energy. I've been doing it so long, I've trained my mind and body to save the adrenaline for when it counts."
But the trash-talking directed at Valuev has had a strategic purpose too. Haye and his trainer/manager Adam Booth say Valuev does not like to put full purchase on his punches because his arms are so big he would risk wearing himself out. If he gets angry – which has not happened in any of his 51 fights – he might just play into Haye's hands.
"His body movement isn't that quick, but his hands move quickly and he doesn't load up on his punches. So he's got the endurance for 12 rounds. He's just got to push his arms out and they're big, heavy shots. I have respect for what he does as an athlete, someone his size who can hold his technique together, and he can throw 70 to 80 punches a round – for a heavyweight that's a good punch-up. But no matter what he does, I've got a way to beat it."
Booth is certain Haye will not freeze when he looks across the ring in a packed Arena Nürnberger Versicherung and sees not the cardboard cut-out he has been decapitating for the media but a real-life giant. "I don't think he'll be thinking anything," Booth says. "At that stage of the game, he's doing. He has a process that he goes through. It's all about repeating the process, rather than thinking. He enjoys fighting. A lot of fighters get paralysed by their nerves, thinking of the end result. Am I winning the fight? Am I going to win? Dreaming of it. And those emotions stay with in them in the fight. You have to think about what you're doing every second of every round. Because he loves fighting, he stays in the moment.
"I genuinely believe he's only been 70% of what he can be, because of the opponents that he's fought, the injuries that he's had. If he gets anywhere near 100% of what he can be, this fight will be totally one-sided. But that's a massive ask. That's down to David. He has all of the skills."
He has. He also has a suspect chin and, in the past, a tendency to fade in longer fights, notably against Carl Thompson, who stopped him in five rounds in 2004. "Without the Thompson defeat we wouldn't be here today," Booth says. "We owe a lot to Carl and the arse-kicking he gave David."
Haye gave up the clubbing and the girl-chasing. He got married. He is a dad. He has, Booth says, "become a man". "And, if you look at David over the last two or three years, he has got better. He's become a professional and he knows what it's like to operate at that level."
What he does not know is what it is like to fight Nikolai Valuev. But, then again, Valuev does not know what it is like to fight David Haye.
Haye can win, maybe even by a late stoppage. If he pulls that off, and in style, it will be a result to rank alongside some of the great British victories on foreign soil.
David Haye fights Nikolai Valuev on Saturday, live on Sky Box Office HD
Source: guardian.co.uk
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