Was Haye a legit HW or just a blown up CW?

Well, that's a little harsh. You might be right in your assessement that his talent overshadows his skills but nevertheless he does have some good skills.

His gameplan versus Wlad was very poor and ultimately lost him the fight. I'm not saying he would've won otherwise but he wouldn't have looked as uncompetitive had he let his hands go. His entire plan was basically to KTFO Wlad with one shot which was plain stupid.

 

I think your getting confused between casual fans supporting their countryman and regular watchers of the sport who believed Haye had a reasonable to good chance of winning but also understanding that he was an underdog to pull off the upset. I think its unfair to label casual British fans Brittards when they honestly dont give a **** who the Klitschko brothers are and do not watch the sport on regular basis, their knowledge tends to go as far as the "gigantic Russian champion" not realising their is actually two of them and that they are from the Ukraine. Went round a friends house to watch the actual fight and looked like a **** because i was the only guy out of about 20 people to pick Klitschko to win, its honestly not their fault the sport and the heavyweight division in particular rarely produces the kind of fights that attract new audiences to watch and its certainly not their fault if they are showing a bit of home support.:good

As for the question, Haye was a legit heavyweight no doubt in my mind about that, yes he was a little small but he still retained much of the speed and power that made him so devastating at cruiser. His fear about getting clocked on the chin seemed unfounded during the Wladimir fight as he seemed to take a few nasty straight rights directly to the chin and managed to shake them off fine. I dont like the idea of taking a very good victory for Wladimir away and you dont just become a blown up cruiser overnight, Haye catches way too much criticism for that fight, he was simply outboxed by the better fighter with the better gameplan.:good

 

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Something we should blame him for. We never got to see SNV vs either Klitschko. Could have been a good fight.

 

LOL. Vladimir23 is giving them fits right now with his trolling

 

A blown up HW i'd say. He never looked like a natural heavy to me despite being muscular and weighting what one would expect a hw to weigh. The extra weight clearly affected his punch output and stamina badly.

 

Not every Brit is a Brittard - but every Brittard is a Brit good

There is a very small percentage of unbiased, open-minded Brits like you, mate. I read your posts before, it's refreshing to have some guys from Britain who talk sense on here.

 

Hey there dave-slave.

 

Haye was a legitimate heavyweight by historical standards... not by today's standards though. The Klitchkos' reign is a farce if you ask me... if there was a superheavyweight class as there should be, they wouldn't be able to just beat up on smaller opponents like they do. Had Haye fought 20+ years ago he wouldn't have been considered small for the division

 

Your a moron

 

If Chris Byrd is a HW then so is Haye and he's punch power is better than most HW's out there.

Him winning a strap against the biggest HW ever should answer your question though.

 

Haye was not a blown up CW, he won a title and beat Ruiz and Barret who are decent fighters. Wlad did not look good against Haye (does he ever?) but was comfortable and knew from round 1 that Haye was not going to win.

Haye's tactics were awful, if he had gone balls out he might have had a slim chance.