Edmund Gerber vs. Shawn McLean Nice straight right hand. What else to say? John Ruiz vs. Adnan Serin Weak performance by Ruiz. Too much headhunting, not enough bodywork. The body was open for him to tag all night, and Serin clearly wasn’t taking those shots well. If Ruiz goes there consistently, the fight is stopped relatively early on. Nikolay Valuev vs. David Haye The fight that almost happened. There was a feeling throughout the entire fight that Haye was going to turn it up. The problem is, he never really did. Oh wait, in Round 12 he landed some serious leather and then stopped punching and let the clock run out where he possibly could have knocked Valuev down, if not out. David Haye was so worried about getting hit that he engaged rarely if ever. Haye began the fight as if he had a plan, but it became increasingly apparent that the only plan he had was to make it to the final bell. Haye threw an embarrassingly sparse number of punches and Valuev simply put in a workmanlike performance. Valuev did what the occasion called for, he moved forward jabbing and just throwing in economical fashion such that he racked up enough rounds to secure a draw on my card. Nothing against Valuev in this one, he did enough to draw in a fight where his opponent didn’t want to fight. Haye is a pretender, not a Heavyweight Champion. For all of the trash he has talked, there are no words to describe the embarrassment of his unwillingness to throw. Both Klitschko brothers will stop either of the guys we saw fight tonight. Here’s the thing: If Haye is this worried about his chin, he needs to either try to drop back down a division, or simply find another profession. I believed before the fight and believe now that Haye had the tools to win this fight against Valuev, he just didn’t engage. My score: 114-114. If Haye had just turned it up in that final round once he stagged Valuev, he would have won the fight on my card. Apparently Haye says he hurt his right hand. If that is true, his style in the fight is more understandable. I’m not sure that I buy it, however, as he did throw several right hands with full power throughout, however infrequently. Furthermore, he fought the same style from opening bell to closing bell, so I definitely do not buy that he had planned on fighting in another manner.
