Vitali’s recent win make’s Haye’s performance against Wladamir look a lot better

Last week saw giant Vitali Klitschko destroy another Heavyweight ‘contender’ in the form of Poland’s Tomasz Adamek in 10 rounds at the Miejski Stadium in Wroclaw, Poland. Whilst watching the powerful but robotic Klitschko it lead me to thinking that David Haye’s performance in his one sided defeat against the younger Klitschko sibling wasn’t as bad as people have made it out to be. I will use Vitali Klitschko’s recent win, amongst other reasons, to justify my reasoning.

Firstly, I am by no means saying that David Haye’s performance against Dr.Steelhammer was impressive and I; like many of the Bermondsey boy’s fans was left extremely disappointed in it as I genuinely believed he would leave Hamburg victorious. The main reason why Haye has been getting ridiculous amounts of stick is because of his approach to the fight. And by approach I mean the way he conducted himself in the months leading up to the unification clash. David Haye has and will always be a trash talker. It has always been his style and it has served him very well over the years as he has always been able to back up his talking, until he came up short against big Wlad. After predicting a brutal knockout, saying he would decapitate him and claiming that he wasn’t like all the other ‘fat American bums’, The Hayemaker did very little to make any of his predictions come true. This lost him a lot of sympathy with fans and media alike. Emmanuel Steward’s charge however, was hailed for his friendliness, humour (including the now infamous ‘come on shake the hand David’) and gentlemanly conduct and he was able to get the majority of the boxing public on his side before his almost flawless performance. Since the defeat, the media have been quick to slam Haye and disregard his boxing abilities, with many seeming to define his career by this one performance and begging him to retire. Everyone appears to have forgotten all that he has achieved in boxing (a superb amateur career, unifying the Cruiserweight division and winning a World title at Heavyweight against a 7ft 2 inch giant in his home country to name a few). There has always been trash talkers in boxing, take Muhammad Ali for example, even when he lost he was praised for his rude and funny comments, remarks and poems about his opponents. I guess, everyone would have preferred it if David had of been respectful, praiseworthy, and quiet in the build up to the fight and still expected it to sell to millions around the World? At the end of the day, people forget that boxing is a business and fights need selling and there is still no better advert than a good guy Vs a bad guy.

Now back to Tomasz Adamek, a former World Champion at Cruiserweight and Light-Heavyweight who had lost only once before falling well short of capturing the WBC World Heavyweight Championship last weekend, is similar to David Haye in the sense that they were both World class operators at Cruiserweight. Both fighters are small for the Heavyweight division which means that they both rely on speed and punching power against bigger opposition. Vitali Klitschko was totally dominant against the Polish heavyweight and was able to bully his smaller opponent all night long before eventually finishing him off in the latter half of the fight. Size and power won Klitschko the fight and despite Adamek having the speed advantage over the ageing Ukranian, he offered little in terms of offence, struggling to land anything all night long. This was also a factor in the Haye Vs Wladimir Klitschko fight as The Hayemaker was too small for Wladimir, who was able to use his size to push and lean on the former WBA World Heavyweight Champion all night long. Despite Haye having to combat this huge size and weight advantage, Wladimir was only able to land now and again as the British heavyweight’s superb conditioning meant his speed was used to manoeuvre him out of trouble whenever he was absorbing too much pressure. The twice beaten fighter from London was also able to land some big shots of his own in the 3rd and the 12th, making a nervous Wladimir retreat and hold. So although he gave away around 6 inches and 4 stone to the huge Klitschko, he didn’t get bullied into a late stoppage like so many, including Tomasz Adamek, have done before against the giant brothers.

The above leads nicely on to my next point, which is the criticism that Adam Booth’s charge gets about his so called ‘weak’ chin. Before the bout people were quick to point to the fact that David Haye has been knocked down by much smaller fighters in his career, many felt that as soon as the man born in Ukraine but boxes out of his adopted home of Germany lands cleanly on his chin it was lights out. Dr.Steelhammer boxed a safe fight against the heavy handed orthodox fighter, but he badly wanted a K.O and he landed some big shots in the latter stages of the fight. The Hayemaker took them all and was still standing; face barely marked up, at the final bell. Now if you look at Wladimir’s record of 59 fights, 56 wins, 49 coming by way of knockout, this represents an 87.5% knockout rate. To have a knockout percentage rate that high you must be able hit pretty damn hard and he has knocked out guys a lot bigger than Haye. So the fact that he was able to take punches the whole 12 rounds show that David not only has a very good chin, but that he has heart too.

After the fight The Londoner was quick to try and deflect some of the blame on his loss at a broken toe. This, I have to agree, was a bad decision from Haye as he should have kept quiet and accepted that he lost to the better man. However as we all know the Bermondsey fighter is a proud man with a big ego and he was hurting badly after the announcer had red out the judges’ final scorecards. People were quick to state that if he had been in pain from a broken toe then he should have pulled out of the fight. That was NEVER an option. Firstly, a lot of money was to be made from this one fight, money to retire on. Secondly, a lot of people had purchased tickets, booked flights and hotels and took time off work to go to the fight. Finally, if he had of pulled out he would have kissed goodbye to any chance of fighting a Klitschko again, after seeing two previous fights again Vitali and Wladimir fall through, a third one would surely have been the final straw. That is why the fight had to happen, broken toe or not. Also, boxing with a broken toe does go a little way to explaining why the former unified World Cruiserweight Champion was so negative and reluctant to throw any of his trademark ‘Hayemakers’ when Wladimir left himself open. Granted, this cannot be counted as a valid excuse because the Londoner decided to take the fight, but to go 12 rounds against one of the best Heavyweight boxers of the generation with a broken toe, surely deserves some credit.

Finally, the fight between Wladimir Klitschko and David Haye went a long way in rejuvenating a division that has been stagnating for years. The Heavyweight division has always been the leading light for boxing, with the Muhammad Ali’s, George Foreman’s, Mike Tyson’s, Lennox Lewis’s to name just a few, thrilling millions of people around the World for years. The Heavyweight division has been in dire need of an injection of excitement and for the first time in years this fight actually provided some interest in a Heavyweight title fight. This fight was shown in America, which is something that has been rare over the years as The Klitschko’s boring style is not very popular across the pond. The Hayemaker deserves a lot of credit for contributing to this as his fast mouth, good looks, great physique and exciting style appealed to Golden Boy Promotions enough for them to co-sign him. Despite, Waldimir’s dominance in the fight and Haye’s failure to deliver on his bold predictions meaning the fight flopped in the USA, for the first time since Lennox Lewis vs Mike Tyson, there was genuine worldwide interest again in the Heavyweight division.

It is a culmination of these reasons that lead me to believe that Haye has received maybe a little too much criticism for his performance. The Hayemaker was able to market the fight meaning it was a PPV success, he was able to last 12 rounds against a giant and take his best shots, he boxed with an injury and he helped inject some much needed excitement into a poor division. So, I for one hope that the 30 year-old from London is not defined by this fight and I also hope that he delays his imminent retirement. David Haye has been very quiet recently, no doubt hurting from his loss and contemplating his next move. But he is starting to stir again and I for one believe that he has the tools to follow through with some of his most recent claims. The Hayemaker said recently, “Vitali is 40 and will stop at some point. For his finale, there is no better opponent than me. I would send him into retirement — but without his championship belt.” So, Haye Vs Vitali next……watch this space.