What were you're thoughts going on in to Valuev v Haye? Did you belive Haye was out of his depth here? Or was it obvious that the Big Guy was getting beat?
Haven't seen that fight since I saw it. I think I probably picked Valuev. It was a close fight, right, very few clear rounds until Haye blasted him in the 11th or 12th?
No doubts in my mind that Haye would win...Have to confess I did have a couple of nagging doubts that he might not get the decision though. As we know, the two can be very different things. But in terms of the fight, I never saw Valuev giving him much bother. A shot-to-smithereens Holyfield, bang-average Ruiz and tubby, game but only moderately talented Chagaev had all given Valuev all he could handle or, in the latter case, beaten him. With the collapse of Setanta Sports (which necessitated Haye's 'injury' and withdrawal from the Summer 2009 fight against Wlad), Haye knew what he was doing in going after Valuev. Easiest bargaining chip he'd ever get for a later fight against a Klitschko, given that Valuev was abysmal and only had the WBA belt again because of boxing politics. Maybe if Valuev had started throwing his punches earlier that Summer they might have been just ready to land on Haye come November....
I expected Haye to win, and more convincingly than he did. I saw Valuev as being very beatable then, as I do now, and I over rated Haye a little at the time.
That was my beginnings on this forum the haye vs valuev fight plus the super six I wanted valuev to win so bad because I thought haye was an ******* What a boring fight after all of hayes trash talk about knocking out valuev and Klitschko. What a dud
You thought he'd won it Seamus? I just didn't see the big guy being very effective at all, but Haye did do a lot of negative running tbh
Vauev must be one of the most ill-remembered fighters of all time. People remember this fight wide - I remember it very close, and Boxrec says it was very close. The decision was an MD. Everyone remembers Holyfield beating Valuev - but almost everyone ringside, live at the fight, had Valuev winning. Almost everyone had Valuev winning, including Ring, who I think had the only American ringside. Tough break.
10 years ago !**** I'm getting old . I thought Haye would win and that Valuev was just a big freak .I couldn't believe how small Haye looked like.a bantam weight v LHW !!! .Not much of a fight but Haye stung him in the last rnd .I thought that he would be ripped off in Germany ! .I thought at the time how small Frazier Tyson or Maricano would look against Herman Munster and how odd it would look when they sparked him out !as they would !!!
Yes, I tried to imagine Tyson in there with Valuev! He'd have absolutely battered him. Would have been a massive bang him going down lol.
Valuev was the boss. Haye's work didn't impress me, was too sporadic and surface. It was close but the champ won.
