Yeah he is! He stay's on the outside using good head movement and feinting constantly, which stresses his opponents out has they are always having to think about when he will strike. Then he closes the gap quickly when he see's an opening. One of my worries for him against Wlad is that when he does have his man hurt Haye tends to get in too close and smother his work, which against Wlad could prove costly has it would give the big Ukrainian the opportunities he needs to tie up at vital moments. I agree with Jack in that i can't see it going past halfway. Whoever wins. Haye could well beat Wlad, but it's a big ask!
Having sparred guys that are 6-7 inches taller than I, it gave me a greater understanding of the task at hand facing david haye but it is a task he is more than able to complete but not as easily as he may think. speed and power are the keys in this fight
Haye will try to outbox Wlad and last the distance. The gameplan that Dark Lord willl come up with? See Groves -- Degale. "Don't get greedy". That's the gameplan. Plan A: Don't get greedy. Plan B: Survive. Take it the distance. (you have an "acting career" to think about).
I don't think he is skilled or fast enough for Wlad. And for that matter, I don't think he has the power to put Wlad away. He may get a flash knock down, but he can't put Wlad to sleep. His defense if full of holes and something tells me that Haye will be trying something very stupid in this fight. I can picture him either trying the Ross Purrity approach of a high hand guard somehow thinking that will get Wlad to punch himself out, or running for dear life. He doesn't have the guts to go all out in the early rounds as promised and we all know that. I hope he does though, because it will look really cool when he gets countered with a left hook or straight right and he goes down like a sack of cement.
I genuinely believe Haye had a bet on that fight. But, yes, he should fight Wlad like he did Harrison or like he fights any weak chinned opponent. Wlad's chin is awful and Haye knows that, so this idea that Haye will try to do a valuev on him is bizarre. Haye couldn't go for his usual knockout because Valuev is very tough whereas Wlad is mentally weak and glass jawed. A comparison with the Valuev fight would be accurate if Haye was fighting Vitali but it doesn't work for Wlad. When people mention those two fights and imply Haye will use similar tactics, they are showing a lack of knowledge.
I think so, yeah. He'll fight as a counter puncher and keep out of range. He should just let Wlad push his jab out, staying well away and then duck under a jab and counter. Wlad should be worried that Haye, or more accurately Booth, have a tremendous track record of taking the jab away. Of course, Wlad has a better jab than anyone they've faced, yes, but it's still something to worry about.
Avoiding the jab isn't the only thing Haye has to do imo, he has to avoid it AND start his offense, cause its no good avoiding it, but not getting anything done offensively. Parrying, blocking the jab, wont win rounds. What waiting does though, is applies mental pressure to the guy who's fighting off the backfoot. Pressure to lead off before you get maneuvered into a vulnerable position in the ring, where by the opponent will look to step in and get off when he sees you in those vulnerable spots, and from what I've seen, Wlad seems pretty effective at cutting the ring off. I thought Wlad set Byrd up for his power hand, that, that was a part of his strategy, I'm sure, somewhere, I heard Steward say said something like that. I wouldn't say Stewart isn't a great tactician, he had McCall working on countering Lewis's right hand throughout their training camp, and we know how that worked out, Lewis got countered by a left hook right hand. Steward gave Holyfield the blue print to beat Bowe, and recently, laid out a perfect strategy for Cotto to beat Foreman(pressure from behind the jab, whilst cutting the ring down), now Foreman is no great shake obviously, but he did have height and reach, used lots of lateral movement, which needed combating. What I would worry about if I were Haye, is that Stewart seems know how to set traps with specific punches, to anticipate which way your going to move/bend, in order to walk you into a punch, he also seems to knows how to exploit where! you hold your hands, how your weight is distributed etc. One of the first things Stewart did with Cotto, was to adjust his stance, as Cotto was leaning in too much, making himself a sucker for the uppercut, and if you watch the Margo-Cotto fight, one of the combo's Margo had success with, was uppercutting with the left hand to jar Cotto's head up out of his gloves, then the booming right hand over the top. I have a different take on how Stewart harnessing the strengths of his fighters, I think one of the reasons Stewart's top fighters like Lewis and Wlad have had so much success, is because the game plan makes it viable to maximize their strengths. Jermain Taylor is just not a mentally strong person imo. Stewart even said, that he would send him out with instructions, and he would try to execute for the first 30 seconds, then go back to what he was doing. Do you remember how Steward would tear a strip off him in the corner to illicit a positive response, only for him to continue to do the same thing?
Great posts! Boxing fans, and boxers, are the greatest fans and competitors in all of sports. I really can't begin to predict this one but I'll go with the fact that Wlad is a known and tested champion and Haye is a largely unknown entity, and if he wins, it will be a surprise to most of us. Analyze all you want, but you've got to admit that a Haye win would leave all of us with our jaws hanging open. We've all waited for this fight for something like two or more years. Now we're a little over 3 weeks away, and I have to admit, I'm jumping out of my skin. One thing I know for sure: boxing is not dead. It never will die. It is the most beautiful, artful sport in the world and boxers--almost every one of them--are the classiest and most gracious athletes alive. They don't speak the King's English but they don't put on any airs either. I can see Haye coming in scared for this one, followed by an early KO for Vlad. Haye ate a lot of jabs from Ruiz and I don't see how he can flawlessly slip every powerful jab thrown his way. The first one that connects will be a new experience for him. There just isn't a sparring partner anywhere who can prepare him jabs that are as hard as left hooks. And Haye's exhaustion and swollen face (from Ruiz' jabs) later that night after that fight have to be factored in to any prognostications about how this fight will go. But then, Haye is like lightning. And he can lunge and get lucky and catch an opponent who's already on his back foot who can't back up anymore. Who knows? But we've got something here that we've all wanted for a long time. Sometimes we boxing fans win and get what we want--and deserve--even these days.
Haye has gone on that all Wlad does is jab, grab, jab jab, grab and so on. Wlad knows this. What you saw was a report on media training day, and Wlad simply put on display for them that goes in line with what Haye has said. Are you certain this is Wlad's real game plan? I don't think he's giving any real tactical plan away on a media workout day.