On July 2, 2011, David ‘The Hayemaker’ Haye faces the biggest challenge of his boxing life when he takes on the might of the number one heavyweight in the world; Wladimir ‘Dr. Steelhammer’ Klitschko. Arguably the highest-profile fight since Lennox Lewis destroyed Mike Tyson nearly a decade ago, two of the top three heavyweights fight in a unification battle. At stake will be Haye’s WBA belt, which he won against giant limited heavyweight Nikolai Valuev in 2009 and has defended twice against John Ruiz and Audley Harrison. Haye insists he will retire before his 31st birthday later in the year, regardless of the outcome of this fight, but a win would surely make a fight against Wladimir’s WBC champion brother Vitali a ‘mega-matchup’. ‘.
Wladimir Klitschko brings the IBF, WBO, IBO and Ring belts to the table along with the tag as ‘the Man’ at heavyweight. Along with the belts, he also brings a record 55 wins from 58 fights, an incredible 49 by knockout! He has a huge height and weight advantage over Haye, standing at 6 feet 6 inches and usually hitting around 18 stone marks. He is, in every sense of the word, a bona fide heavyweight fighter.
Haye, on the other hand, is a relative heavyweight rookie with just 5 bouts at the weight. He won the title in just his third heavyweight fight against Valuev after easy ‘tasting’ fights against Tomasz Bonin and the aging Monte Barrett. Most of his career has been spent at cruiserweight, where he had an excellent victory against Jean Mormeck to unify the division. While Haye isn’t a 6-foot-3 ‘titch’ and fights at 15-16 stone, his physical stats don’t quite match Wlad’s. However, what Haye seems to lack on paper doesn’t really carry over to the ring. He is an incredible athlete, in incredible form and with power that defies his size. He throws shots from various angles and has a real killer instinct once he hurts his opponent. He has a professional record of 25 wins, 23 by knockout. His only loss came early in his career against veteran in-ring expert Carl ‘the Cat’ Thompson in a fight Haye dominated from the start, but seemed to “gas out” as the fight went on. While these stamina issues don’t appear to have fully healed, by beating Valuev in 12 rounds he showed definite improvement. His problem seems to be that he often tries to blow up his opponents early with combinations that consume a lot of energy. If these don’t do the job, he seemed a bit vulnerable to “gassing”. This was evident in the John Ruiz fight, though he eventually came out ahead and stopped the tough American.
Klitschko has 3 losses on his knockout-laden record, all against fighters he should have easily beaten. His first loss came against journeyman Ross Puritty in December 1998 by eleventh-round TKO. Vladimir had entered the fight as the heavy favorite and with a record of 24-0. He then somehow dismissed this loss as a mere ‘blip’ with wins over experienced names like Monte Barrett, Chris Byrd (to win the WBO heavyweight title), Francois Botha and Ray Mercer in a 4 year period that took the record from him. to an impressive 40-1. Then came the 2003 disaster against ‘power puncher’ Corrie Sanders. Klitschko was stopped in the opening seconds of the second round after Sanders landed at will once he had him in trouble. This really raised question marks over Wladimir’s ‘chin’, which was further exposed by Lamon Brewster a year later. Again Wlad suffered a technical knockout, this time the fight was stopped at the end of round 5 and he was unable to continue. Despite employing the services of the legendary Emmanuel Steward, this loss left Klitschko’s career in tatters. His confidence was a rock button. Freddie Roach has recently stated that in this period he had told Wlad what a good athlete he was. To this Wlad is alleged to have replied “I wish he could fight”!
Despite calls to retire from many sources, including his champion brother Vitali, Wlad, under the masterful eye of Steward, undertook the arduous task of redeeming his career for the second time, and he has done so in spectacular style! Since the loss to Brewster in 2004 he has had a winning streak that is still intact. Wins against greats Samuel Peters (twice), Chris Byrd, Calvin Brock, Ray Austin, revenge against Lamon Brewster, Sultan Ibragimov, Tony Thompson, Hasim Rahman, Ruslan Chagaev and Eddie Chambers have seen him establish himself as the king of the heavy weights. While his brother Vitali currently holds the WBC belt (both brothers have always maintained they will never fight each other), the only belt missing from his collection is the WBA belt that hangs proudly around England’s David Haye’s six-pack. Ever since Brewster defeated Wlad, he has taken a safety-first approach to his fights. He falls behind a powerful left jab and only commits to opening up once his opponent is clearly finished. While many claim that his style is boring, the power behind this jab should not be underestimated as many of his opponents claim that he is harder than most heavyweights’ full punches.
On July 2 it will be interesting to see what tactics Haye chooses. Wladimir will most likely box as he always does, cautiously behind the solid left jab. Less certain, however, is how David Haye will approach the fight. Many believe that he will go all out from the first bell, trying to take out Wlad before he catches up with him. Others believe he will use similar tactics to the Valuev fight where he ran in and occasionally took out the giant. My personal opinion is that such tactics would not work against Wladimir, who is much more active, precise and faster than the heavy behemoth Valuev. I think Haye will use the first two rounds to find range on him, staying away from Wlad’s jab and staying on the defensive. Then I expect him to unleash powerful round 3 combinations, hoping to eliminate Wlad by KO or TKO. I think this is David’s best chance of victory, although he would still consider Wlad the heavy favorite. The picture will be much clearer once Haye finally gets a taste of Wlad’s jab. How he reacts to that first shot may very well shape the rest of the fight.
Either way, by midnight GMT, David Haye or Wladimir Klitschko will have in their possession the WBA, WBO, IBF, IBO and Ring belts and the title of the best heavyweight in the world.
