It is less than a week now before David Haye finally gets a chance to win a world heavyweight title against Nikolai Valuev. As this fight nears it seems more and more interest is being generated for the contest. David was on the receiving end of a whole lot of criticism and negative press after his consecutive pull outs from fights with Wladimir Klitschko (citing injury) and then Vitali Klitschko (deciding not to sign after a verbal agreement), so the bigger the interest in this fight for him the better for more than the obvious reasons..
So what is there to make of this upcoming bout and more importantly what will it mean for the potential winner? Ironically although Haye is the challenger he has far more to lose than Valuev and will certainly bear the brunt of a massive wave of negative press if he were to lose. Valuev on the other hand has never really been considered for much beyond his freakish size, is the underdog in most analysts eyes and would be recording a career best win if he were to successfully defend his title.
When this fight was first announced along with the Vitali Klitschko Chris Arreola bout I wrote a few articles concerning each respectively with regards to the state of the division. I thought that people needed a two fold reality check, first in regard to just how much of a mismatch Arreola Klitschko was, and secondly with regard to just how awful Nikolai Valuev is. Predictably Arreola came in far too heavy and was hopelessly overmatched from the opening bell of a horribly one sided contest. Now will Nikolai Valuev prove just how awful he is against David Haye?
The more media attention this fight generates, the more I am left with the feeling that this contest has crossed the line into absurdity. The premise for the fight has literally become: Can David Haye possibly beat such a giant? There has been little discussion in the U.K of Valuev’s career to date, his style (if you can call it that) or anything other than his size. The problem is sky sports (who now own the rights to Haye fights) are simultaneously calling this bout a fight for the ‘heavyweight championship of the world.’ They are harking on about Lewis’s retirement and Hayes’s chance to become Britain’s next heavyweight champ, all the while casually ignoring the fact that any boxing fan knows this is not a fight for the world heavyweight title. Many articles in the U.K are even citing Vitali Klitschko’s retirement and the void left in its wake without mentioning the successful return of Vitali or the utter dominance of Wladimir. Overall the handling of this fight by sky sports and the British media has left me and I imagine many boxing fans with a strange and unwelcome feeling. We are being told the almost meaningless WBA title (disgraced after years of obscurity and corruption) is the heavyweight championship of the world and it seems the Klitschko brothers no longer exist now that Haye is not fighting them.
So what will happen as far as the fight is concerned? I have gone public with my opinion that the only way Valuev can win is by either an exceptionally unlikely one punch knockout or another one of his controversial decisions. We need reminding that until Valuev fought a geriatric Holyfield he had never boxed someone with good footwork or lateral movement and was rather befuddled by it. The men Valuev has knocked out were hardly anything more than B/C level fringe contenders (Barrett, Beck etc). His aggression fails to work on any one with decent ability: Ruiz, Chagaev and Holyfield. He has even been backed up by considerably smaller men. Nikolai Valuev is a nice person but he has been disgracing the sport of boxing for too long now. He needs to fade away into obscurity if Heavyweight boxing will completely redeem itself. Beyond the novelty of watching such an enormous human being enter a ring there is nothing else to look out for. Of course it may be that Haye pot-shots, hits Valuev’s guard a lot but fails to knock him out and loses a decision, but that is hardly to Valuev’s credit. Any fighter with such size will surely win a large portion of their bouts by default.
David Haye has assured us his year off will not affect him in the ring and this author hopes such is the case, because boxing really needs Haye to win this fight.
I may be annoyed by the build-up to this strange contest, and the farcical billing of it as a fight for the heavyweight championship of the world. (Hell Matt Skelton fought for this belt not too long ago!!!) Yet I understand that Haye can still in the future present a logical challenge to either Klitschko and we really cannot afford to lose him.
Right now the Klitschko’s joint dominance is looking impervious. Few opponents are actually landing significant punches, and no one can deny they are actively seeking the best. Yet having developed a sort of fascination with just how good they are I only want to see the most intriguing possible bouts take place. A fight with Haye is one of them. Beyond David we can see only: Eddie Chambers, Alexander Povetkin, David Tua and well I’m not sure who else? Sam peter has already been beaten by both, Chris Arreola may never be the same after what Vitali did to him and prospects like Olainder Solis for example, seemingly refuses to train or discipline himself. The list of no hopers goes on.
I will tune in to the Haye Valuev bout like most other boxing fans (I predict a quite high PPV number). I officially predict a lopsided points win for Haye which the judges see far too close. I would not be surprised by a Haye knockout: For if Haye really is as fast as he says for a heavyweight and his power has translated into the division then logic says he should be able to hit Valuev relatively comfortably with big shots. You can never count out such an enormous man but I truly hope and pray that Valuev’s luck and corruption has finally run out. The Haye Valuev bout might make a mockery of heavyweight boxing but it needs to see Valuev lose in order to regain a mark of respect and it also needs to see Haye win so that a logical challenge to the Klitschko’s is still hanging around.
Source: Eastsideboxing.com
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