After watching HBO's Face-Off with Max Kellerman, I came to the conclusion that the upcoming Haye vs. Klitschko isn't as even as it seemed.
I have, for quite some time thought that David Haye would be the only real challenge to the Klitschko's reign in the Heavyweight division. But I admit the main reason for that was that the Heavyweight division of boxing is so poor right now. Not to take anything away from David but he is by far the smaller fighter (see above picture). His 4 fights at HW were against a gatekeeper in Monte Barrett, a giant caveman called Valuev, a grandpa called John Ruiz and Audley Harrison (lol.). If your not up-to-date on your boxing you would think "how the hell is Haye the WBA champ and why is he challenging a Klitschko?" and I wouldn't shout at you if you did but the fact of the matter is that the HW division, other then the Klitschkos, Haye, Valuev, Ruiz and a few Russians, is just really, really appauling. Many of the lighter heavyweights (like Haye) fight at Cruiserweight (i.e Adamek) and even Light Heavyweight. That leaves the Heavyweight division full of fighters with beer bellies and reaction times slower then the inhabitants of my local old people's home (and then you have Shannon Briggs...ha!). So how do you get to be Heavyweight Champ? Learn to jab, hug and move. That sentence summed up the Klitschko brothers. Yes, they have PhDs, can speak like 10 languages and are well dressed but you don't need any of those things to realise that you can jab your way to the Heavyweight title(s). Don't get me wrong, I'm not hear to rip the hell of out the Ukrainians. They are good, solid and smart boxers who just happen to be boxing in a decade when the Heavyweight division is just..crap.
Watching the HBO special hosted by commentator and sports analyst Max Kellerman, it was clear that David was just there to hype up the fight even more. He doesn't care if half of the world thinks he's an arrogant t***. He wants to badly get under Wlad's skin and that's what he did. He wants to get Wlad out of his comfort zone and to react, to burst and punish David, giving the Brit the openings he needs to stop the Ukrainian. It was clear at one point in time that Klitschko flipped but, being the educated man he is, he kept calm knowing he will get his chance to shut David up. I'm still thinking David will be too much for Wladimir who has hit the canvas many times (not to mention the 3 defeats all by TKO). David's sole loss was also a TKO loss but Carl Thompson weathered an earlier Haye masterclass in a fight that was more Haye throwing it away rather then Thompson winning it. Yes, on paper, Wlad has fought way better opponents to rack up a total of 58 fights compared to David's 26 but the "good fighters" that Wlad has fought were all "past their best" and at the end of their careers (i.e Rahman, Peter, Chambers and Brewster). The other fighters were basically bums, simple as.
Now let's look at the actual fight. David has 23 KO's, Klitschko has 49, short fight? I doubt it. I believe Wlad knows that Haye is for real and that he must bring not only his A game but his A++, A* games (even they might not be good enough). Wlad will want to keep Haye back with his jab for the first 4-5 rounds as Haye will most likely aim to end the fight inside 3-4 rounds. I'm not saying Haye will rush Wlad like a raging bull but rather he will look to get under the jab and inside Wlad. What about the Klitschko hugs? Well if Haye can get out of a hug from that giant Valuev, he can get away from Wladimir. One advantage for Klitschko is that the fight is in Germany, his "second home" (with the brothers both being German citizens as well as Ukrainian). The crowd will most likely be behind Wlad but what they arena won't expect is a couple of thousand, drunken British supporters to back Haye. If you watch combat sports as much as I do, you will notice one thing immediately when a Brit is fighting: the arena, all of a sudden, becomes British (the place shakes with chants of "engerrrrrlandddd!", for example). That could work well for David and Wladimir could find himself thinking "where am I fighting, again?". Advantage, Haye. All in all, the odds are that the fight will be stopped by a cut or by an earlier stoppage just to spice up some controversy to get fans wanting a rematch (bringing in more money to the promoters). I'd give Haye a 65-35 advantage simply because his punch, against Wlad's, is much better and Wlad could be unpleasantly surprised when he gets hit in R1.
One thing is for sure, this fight, this superfight as it is being billed (only because its the biggest fight since Lewis-Vitali) will give boxing fans, and fight fans in general, something to enjoy, remember and talk about for the next decade or 2 because the next "super fight isn't around the corner" (no, Vitali is educated enough not to want to fight Haye after he sees his brother get destroyed, no thirst for revenge would be great enough to want another Haye beating).
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