Devise a strategy for David Haye to beat Vitally Klitschko

Norris was nearly 36 when he met Vitali. Haye needs to watch the Hearns Leonard first fight and copy Leonards strategy,lateral movement ,in and out,don't stay in front of the big man, and move away side to side .Haye has a tendency to stop and pose at times,this could be disastrous against the Ukrainian's long reach,footwork needs to be concentrated on and throwing lots of clusters of shots ,fast combos ,then out and away.
Haye should look to land more punches than the giant ,not particularly heavy shots ,just more of them than Vitali lands.I give him a shot at winning Vitali is getting on now and has not many recent rounds in the bank.I expected him to beat Peter ,whom I never rated ,and whose style was perfect for him.The big questions are can Haye take Vitali's punch? And can Haye hurt Vitali sufficiently to gain his respect and make him wary of attacking?

 

I'm not sure that Haye can beat him as I think Vitali can stop him with a jab.

He needs to work on his stamina, move in and out, keep throwing bombs and hope the accumulation beating will get to Vitali so that late on he can land a bomb that will put his lights out.

I think he should be fighting Wlad; Haye called him out first, it's already been built up....I don't think Wlad wants the fight though to be honest.

I'd love to see Haye beat Vitali, but can't see it happening. Can't see Vitali budging if I'm honest, but that's just my opinion.

Haye needs to sort his stamina out, draw Vitali on the ropes, move to the side and try and set up angles to land bombs on the jaw, temple, and around the eyes (where Vitali has shown a small weakness, can't remember him being cut apart from the Lewis fight though so might've been a one off)

Basically, he needs to play Matador to Vitali's bull.

 

The problem with threads like this is that there are a lot of born losers on this board who can't conceive of how to accomplish things in life. They are best left unmentioned and ignored; ideally, their "lie-down-and-take-it-like-a-dog" posts wouldn't even be in this thread. You know the posters I'm talking about.

Now, the first thing to look at is what advantages Haye has over Vitali: I think he has a considerable advantage in handspeed and a modest but useful edge in footspeed. He also throws far cleaner, crisper punches and is much more gainly than Vitali, who even at his best as a pro was a lumberer.

As for the dangers, I don't actually think the biggest one for Haye is Vitali's power. That's a factor, but far more important is Vitali's workrate, stamina and general durability. It seems very unlikely that Haye can even get Vitali off his feet, let alone stop/KO him, so Haye is looking at a distance fight. Haye, of course, has had big problems with stamina in the past.

Naturally, Haye needs to find a strategy that plays to his advantages and minimizes the dangers. Trying to bomb Vitali out early, as Sanders did, would have some worth if it wasn't for Haye's stamina; a high-workrate fight poses the same problem; Haye does not have the jab to win a stick-and-move fight.

However, there's no escaping the fact that Haye has the most fearsome combination of speed and power that Vitali has faced since Herbie Hide. One also has to remember that Vitali was not getting a lot of steam behind his punches against Peter: it was an accumulation stoppage. Additionally, Vitali was hardly elusive against the EXTREMELY slow Peter, who was able to catch him while barely moving his feet.

Haye should look to move continually but deliberately, drawing Vitali onto the front foot. That immediately negates most of Vitali's height advantage, since it's much easier to hit a tall boxer who is coming at you that one who is moving away from you. Haye should land clean single punches, keep his chin safe and get into a position where he is either quickly out of range or is too close for Vitali's long arms to effectively punch.

As for training, Haye should work on three things, listed in order: defence, endurance and speed. His speed is already very good, but he needs to focus on getting his punches to be as quick as possible; his endurance needs a lot of work; getting his defence to improve would greatly reduce the chances of Vitali.

Haye is a very calculating man. He picked Vitali over Wlad for a reason: he has a puncher's chance against Wlad but a boxer's chance against Vitali, and the boxer's chance is always the better. If Haye comes to the ring with the kind of strategy and training I described above, a lot of people would have to work overtime on revisionist history to discredit the win. In this very thread, some natural-born losers have already started.

 

OK, but Haye has never used that strategy before.

Clazaghe doesn't welcome exchanges in center of the ring, and Haye can't hope to trade blows with Vitlai and come out the better. Haye chin is suspect the way it is.

Staying agressive is how Haye looses early if you ask me.

If Haye doesn't have the smarts, then how can he execute a busy gameplan?

I doubt Vitlai would quit from punches.

Perhaps, but Vitali has a quick mind, quick reflexes, and pretty fast hands. Haye is fast, but no faster than Sanders or Johnson were.

Stamina usualy declines when a fighter adds a lot of weight. I doubt Haye wins the punch stat vs Vitali. VItlai throws on average about 70 punches a round...as many or more on average than Rocky Marciano or Joe Frazier.

I won't view it as a cracking win for Vitlai unless Haye rebounds and does something at heavyweight. I agree a 1st round Ko for Vitlai will make Haye look bad, and a 7th would make Vitlai look better. I do not view Vitlai as too old based on fine performance vs Peter. We will have to see how he looks in the ring.

 

I was under the impression that Team Haye wanted Wlad initially but Vitali was maneuvered in front of them instead. If true that's a compliment to the perception of the punching power of Haye at heavyweight.

I think you make a lot of good points, as you most always do. Haye's only chance to win the fight (injury aside) is to outwork Vitali whilst keeping his chin tucked down and limiting the chances for Vitali to counter-punch. He's faster than Vitali and he should be able to do this for several rounds. The issue is with Haye's stamina and whether he can keep the in-out tactics going. As he tires he'll slow and make mistakes and it's then that Vitali nails him.

Haye needs to do a lot of sparring for the fight but I'm not sure how much he will actually do. Like RJJ and Hamed before him he appears to me a fighter that very much relies on his physical attributes. Usually those attributes are good enough to carry him through the vast majority of fights but the Vitali fight is one of those where he really needs a gameplan and that said gameplan must be executed. If not then he loses.

 

I think it would be best to employ the same strategy as Chagaev had against Valuev; use the foot- and handspeed advantage to land clean punches and get out of range in time, to bank rounds.

Of course, this is much easier against Valuev than against Vitali, but at 37, his reflexes on which he relies so much are not what they used to be. I'm not sure if his stamina is as good as it used to be, either. He did throw his usual amount of 70 punches a round against Peter, but the Nigerian's workrate was very slow and he was so stuck-in-the-mud that Klitschko could set exactly the pace he desired.

One advantage that Haye has here is that while Wlad can probably take him out, Vitali is not a big one-punch hitter. If his stamina holds up, he should be able to win a decision based on speed, accuracy and youth. If the odds are 2:1 or better in Vitali's favor, it's worth laying down some money on Haye.

 

dare i say, haye wont change the way he fights, hands low, quick offence, depending on natural reactions to ride big punches....this could be disastrous....haye has the physical attributes to fight a tysonesque style against the bigger man...if he keeps a hihg gaurd and stays busy, .....footwork, good lateral movement, give himself and vitali angles to work and worry about respectively and, most importatny, when he gets inside....busy busy, up and down the body and head, short, compact punches....only difference between him and a tyson performance is that haye cant get lazy in there as mikey sometimes did, and rely on an aura he dioesnt have (yet) to keep big vitali from launching an offence....he must stay busy and i think he musy land hard and often early to mkae vitali a bit more circumspect throughout the fight....

i doubt he can stop vitlai with a big bomb, but i can see a late rounds onslaught..(if haye gets there without catching a big one on the chin...) stopping a tiring vitali on the ropes..vitali performed superbly against a human heavy bag with the will to win and passion of a bag of potatoes in sam peter....haye will not, cannot employ such a strategie...

i fel many are worried about what strategies haye will employ..but how will vitali stand up, physically and mentally, to a young, strong, hungry, fast oponent who can bang, if he cant get him out of their in a few rounds as everyone predicts, the monster will grow in vitalis head, and he may get old all of a sudden....kudos to haye either way, and vitali, for taking a dangerous fight..seems these two are the only guys who subscribe too the theory that to be the best you must beat the best...

 

Haye would have to use his speed to throw quick punches & get the hell out of there. Tag Vitali, then move out. Constant movement , a hard jab and an occasional hard right. Hopefully open a deep cut and get a TKO win. If Haye gets too brave and tries for the Kayo, He will get countered and its goodnight David.

 

Corrie Sanders and Lennox both came very close to dropping him, Sanders did in fact drop him (his hand touched the canvas) but it wasn't ruled as one.

 

Sanders shoved him down. Haye's power at heavy is still unknown. While good to very good is a guess, it took Haye a while to get a shop warn Barrett out of there. I tend to doubt Haye hits as hard as Sanders or Lewis did.

I think some people backing Haye to change his stripes and fight a certain way are in for a shock. Haye is who we think he is. A fast handed puncher with a questionable chin, so-so defense, and so-so stamina.

Unless Vitlai has suddenly become old / injured, I cannot see Haye winning this one.

 

What chance does Haye have? If Vitlai makes it through a camp without any injury, I think Haye has about 10-15% chance of winning. That's it.

While I like Haye and view him as a most welcome addition to heavyweight boxing, I also think he is being hyped like Rocky Balboa. This is not a movie. Haye is a blown up cruiser with a suspect chin, average at best defense, and suspect stamina. We know this. Haye also lacks the experience at heavy. He's not going to out box Vitlai, out think Vitali, or out last Vitlai in a long fight.

Maybe if Haye had footwork like Ali, or could clinch like Wlad, or had great defense to block/slip/duck...that would allow him work around his defencies to pull off some sort of game plan to win. I just do not see it at all.

I do view Haye as a top ten heavy, but I also think Vitlai is much better than your typical top ten heavy. I also think Haye’s heart, or as they say in Brittan “ bottle “ is un-tested.

It is my observation that the big punchers with great hand speed who have had it easy, tend not to be the most resistant type. Double that statement if they have shaky stamina. They hit the panic button as soon as they are out of their comfort zone.

Vitlai is an imtimidator who forces you to confront him on his terms. We’ll see what Haye has.

 

Strategy is as follows: Be in the best shape of your life, be willing to eat punches to get inside, and go to the body. He is not going to knock Vitali out, so throw in bunches. Score points, not oohs and ahs.

 

I say what I think. This is not a heart pick. I don't give Haye much of a chance, and I think after round six he'll slown down too much to win on points.

I saw Haye vs Enzo M. Enzo cut Haye and shook him up a bit in one round before Haye finished off the light Enzo M. the finish was great by Haye, but if a standard alphabet crusier did this, I wonder.

I also saw Haye vs Barrett, and it look like Barrett who is no puncher at heavy shook Haye up a bit with the few solid punches he landed in the fight. Some think Haye was down.

So Haye came back to win vs Moremek. Ok, he showed some heart, but it was Moremek's last fight at age 35. Moremek was likely wahsed up, and Haye had a huge height and reach advantage in this fight.

Question, how many times has Haye been down at cruiser?

If Vitlai lands solid, Haye is going down as he hits much hard than anyone Haye fought, and has greater accuracy. Vitlai also has a higher punch out put than anyone Haye fought. Haye will not enjoy a size advantage vs Vitlai.

In short, I think Haye's a gonner early. Sorry.