Current day Haye vs. the Page that showed up as a slob, but still lifted the WBA title from Coetzee. Who wins?
Id like to see Haye actually beat a good fighter before I make an assessment of him. I dont see very much in him besides a big mouth.
Page unless Haye proves to be anything more than a classless loud mouth who does not back it up. He may be able to out run Page
The Page that went to South Africa to lick Coetzee in his backyard put on a helluva performance. He outslugged Coetzee and outboxed Gerrie when he wanted to & generally outdid Gerrie A to Z. I see the outcome as the same & a stoppage for Page.
Haye has impressive athletic gifts, but I am unimpressed otherwise. I can't see him defeating many with a solid set of skills. I must admit, I may be guilty of selling him short. I picked Barrett against him, and aside from clips against Valuev, the only other fight I was him in was against Maccarinelli. I thought he looked very raw against Maccarinelli. I could see his toughness and power getting him a win over Andrew Golota, but I can't think of many high profile names for him to get a win against. Haye and Michael Grant may have been a lot of fun if they were to have been around at the same time.
If Page were fighting today he'd be Undisputed Champion .. The current Heavyweight division is one of the worst divisions in the history of boxing. If you remove the Media hype, you've got the 2 Klitschko's who use their height and reach to bore everybody to death, Wlad and Vitali are conmen, not proper fighters, they are exhibition boxers who are feasting on total bums .. Haye thinks he sounds like Ali when he talks, but the difference is Ali used to trash talk Liston, Frazier and Foreman, Haye thinks hes hot **** for trash talking Valuev, Barrett and Ruiz !! The rest of the bums include 'Fat' Arreola, 'Fat and Stiff' Sam Peter, Hasim 'Give me another Title shot, i'll prove im Brilliant' Rahman, Sultan 'Aint got a Clue' Ibragimov and the legend that is 'Fast' Eddie Chambers who has already been totally out fought by Povetkin but who gets a shot at Wlad tonight .... No wonder Holyfield keeps going, he's watching all these bums and thinking 'these guys wouldnt be fit to wipe my nose in my heyday' .. Page, Witherspoon, Lyle, Pinklon Thomas, Bonecrusher Smith, Tony Tucker, Michael Dokes and Tony Tubbs would all look like Joe Louis in this era !!
I agree with this. Haye has good speed, good power, and good skills, but he could be the next Herbie Hide, minus the big mouth. I think Haye has a suspect chin, average defense, and average stamina. Beating Ruiz convincingly will mean something for Haye. Right now, I'd favor Povetkin, and Chagaev over Haye.