By the time David Haye and Wladimir Klitschko step into the ring tonight, it will be the culmination of months of relentless promotion and hype. The talking will be over, and the two protagonists will get down to what they really are good at – boxing. It will be one man against another, there will be no mercy, and for the loser it will be heartbreak.
For some years now, there hasn’t been the same level of interest in a heavyweight boxing fight, most likely because this was the one everyone had been waiting for. Haye and Klitschko nearly fought a few years back, but when the Hayemaker pulled out through injury, it was cancelled.
In the meantime, there is no doubt that a lot of talking has happened. In Haye’s case, a lot of publicity stunts, reaching a crescendo of tastelessness. Both men have taken on mediocre opposition – none more so than the pathetically one sided encounter between Haye and Audley Harrison. One can only hope that tonight’s meeting does not follow the same path.
When two of the best heavyweight boxers of a certain era come together for a world title bout, there is little to match the excitement, the buzz and sense of expectation that it generates. You know that months of preparation and fighting talk will all boil down to a mere 12 rounds – or even less in most cases.
Everyone with even so much as a passing interest will attempt to make their prediction of what might happen on the night, and the Haye v Klitschko fight is proving to be no different. It is amazing; there is no other sport on the planet that draws such differences in opinion from so many people. Even the experts cannot seem to agree on who will come out on top.
One argument is that Haye’s speed and agility will see him to victory, while others argue that Klitschko’s height and weight advantage will be too much for the Brit to handle. It is impossible to guess who truly will come out on top in the end.
Indeed, who would have said Ruslan Chagaev would have overcome a 1’1” height difference to beat Nicolay Valuev? Surely no one would have fancied a 45 year old George Foreman to beat Michael Moorer, 19 years his junior. The fantastic thing is, however, those things did happen.
My personal viewpoint is that Klitschko will just about have too much for Haye. For all Haye can talk the talk, I sincerely doubt he can follow that up with a win tonight. Wladimir Klitschko doesn’t hold three world title belts for no reason – he will be hungry to add a fourth to his collection, meaning the Klitschko brothers will have a monopoly of all the world heavyweight titles.
It won’t be a one sided encounter though – it might not even be particularly explosive. There is a lot on the line for these two men, so a cagey battle would appear to be on the cards. If this one doesn’t go the distance, it will be sure to still go a long way.
Haye has admitted he is not prepared to let the fight go 12 rounds, and so he shouldn’t. It would be safe to say that if it does, a notoriously biased judging panel in Hamburg will back the German based Ukranian. A Brit surely couldn’t hope to win on points, right?
To win, Haye will have to knock him out, and I’m not sure he has it in his locker. Sure, he is a big puncher – but so is Klitschko. Haye will have to be careful not to leave himself exposed. Equally he must not be too defensive, for Klitschko will dominate him.
He needs to strike a balance – something close to what Muhammed Ali went for to beat George Foreman in 1974. Ali won that with an eighth round KO, and if Haye is to win it may well be via similar route.
Sadly, or thankfully some cynics may argue, I do not see Haye stopping ‘Dr Sledgehammer’, he just does not quite have enough. For me, this certainly will go the distance, and when that happens, there will only be one winner… and he won’t be British.
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