Harrison & Haye - Heavyweight Ambitions

Over the past couple of weeks the ever brightly shining star of David Haye continued to rise and the nearly burnt out star of Audley Harrison showed it still has a bit of twinkle left.

Haye, who has grown more and more popular with the public, and although still putting some off with his trash talking, has an uncanny knack of backin up his chat. After just 25 seconds of his 1st heavyweight championship defence, Haye dropped John Ruiz who had previously only been knocked out once. Luckily for anybody who forked out to watch the fight, Ruiz was up for taking a lot more punishment, being knocked down twice more before his corner threw in the towel in the 9th round.

Impressive again, David Haye showed he is a breath of fresh air to the heavyweight division with his swift movement and hammer like blows. Next up must be the Klitschko brothers and it seems Haye has definitely got their attention by the looks of Wladimir's comical video calling him out. He sounds like he'd be well cast for a baddy in a Die Hard film or something like that.



Now on to Audley....hmm. Our good friend and blog sister DJ Nikki is a good friend of Audley's and was invited to watch him as he won his "win or retire" bout for the European Championship against Michael Sprott. I am assured that he is a great guy and I don't doubt that. As your average boxing fan though it's a shame not to have the same insight.

A-Force, or as some have dubbed him, "A-Farce" or "Fraudley", was basically fighting for his career against an opponent who had previously knocked him out. Harrison laboured for most of the fight and found himself behind on the judges cards entering the 12th round. To be fair he was fighting with a shoulder injury for the majority of the fight...but saying that, Haye manage to defeat Valuev being one handed most of the fight? And I can assure you Sprott is no Valuev! To his credit Audley managed to dig in and rocked Sprott with a massive left which ended the fight in the 12th.

Now I have a few issues with Harrison...to me, in the fights i've seen, he just doesn't look comfortable in the ring. He fights on the back foot and almost looks scared on occasions. There's no doubt he was a talented amateur, they don't give away Olympic golds for nothing, but he just hasn't cut it as a pro. All this I could forgive though if it wasn't for his incessant self hyping and unrealistic boasts. If David Haye is the poster boy for talking sh!t and being able to back it up, Audley is the flag bearer for all those with delusions of grandeur.

You have to have confidence in any sport to do well and in boxing, a bit of self promotion is all part of the game. When your claims are so unrealistic and out of touch with public opinion though, so that even those who used to support you are alienated, you have to wonder whether it's time to pack it in.

When all is said and done I wish luck to both of them, I just hope Audley is able to reclaim some humility and then i'll be behind him all the way.

Haye vs Valuev - LB's Verdict

And the new....!!


So David Haye talked the talk and he has now walked the walk. In beating the Russian giant Nikolay Valuev last night he has become the 1st British Heavyweight Champion since Lennox Lewis in 2003.

In the fight preview yesterday I stated that if David Haye could fight a disciplined fight and not succumb to his gung-ho urges, he could do it. This is exactly what happened and technically speaking it was a perfectly executed fight.

From the opening round it was clear that Haye was going to try to nullify Valuev's massive physical advantage by being as evasive as possible, and staying out of reach. In between dodging, weaving and sidestepping, Haye did manage to land the more telling blows with some sharp 1-2 combos.

In the middle rounds Valuev looked to have gotten the hang of the game as he continued to plod forward and managed to tag Haye a couple of times but not with anything that would trouble him. The bigger blows although coming infrequently were still coming from Haye and his apparently questionable stamina (not sure where that came from as it seems he learnt that lesson in the defeat to Thompson years ago) was nowhere to be seen.

Going into the last round it was clear that the fight had been a close affair, but this was chess not chequers and Valuev had not landed anything of note. In the 12th, Haye got the closest to backing up his claims of a being able to win by KO. He rocked the giant with a left then a right and as Valuev stumbled against the ropes couldn't quite finish him off.


So has this victory silenced the naysayers? I would like to think so but you can't please everyone. I've been seeing comments saying it was a boring fight and Haye was lucky and negative. To these comments i'd say go away and learn about boxing, this is not computer game bout. Do you expect him to stand toe to toe and trade with a man 7 stones heavier and with a massive reach advantage? Haye had a game plan and the discipline to stick to it. Add to this the fact he won a points decision in Germany which has always been a notoriously difficult place to get a fair decision, and the fact he had a suspected broken right hand since the 3rd round.


Next up is a contractually obliged defence and John Ruiz, which should hopefully and probably end up in a spectacular knockout win for Haye, then bring on the Klitschkos! Heavyweight boxing just got exciting again.

Haye vs Valuev - Preview

Well fight fans, the most anticipated heavyweight boxing match up for years is nearly here. Tonight we will find out whether David Haye will backup his words and reinvigorate a whole boxing division, or be made to painfully eat his own words by the man he has branded a circus freak. Let's get ready to ruumblllee!!


As the weeks have gone by there has been a lot of hype and opinion about how this fight could go and it seems to have captured everyone's imagination. The majority of people I have spoken seem to feel David Haye has gone too far and maybe he doesn't have the right to say some of the things he has been saying. I disagree, he has been doing it purely for promotion which I think you will find has worked a treat. Another thing though is that you have to give Haye respect for having the attitude of fighting anyone, anywhere.

As far as predictions for how the fight could go, it's a real tough one. There are so many factors and a lot of them will depend on how Haye chooses to fight tactically. Currently the voting on secondsout.com has the result predicted as follows...
24% - Valuev KO
33% - Haye KO
16% - Valuev Points
27% - Haye Points
This just shows how split the opinion is on how it could go. It truly is an intriguing match up.

I believe Evander Holyfield, who recently lost a controversial points decision to Valuev, has given some good advice for the way for Haye to slay the giant. His tactics of being patient and waiting for Valuev to throw a shot, then slipping that shot and landing a few of his own nearly paid off and should have done. Using lots of lateral movement so that Valuev can't get set and keep moving in and out. The question is, has Haye got the patience to execute this kind of strategy? Or will his gung-ho urges to throw bombs be his undoing? Only time will tell!

I'm never one to sit on the fence so here is my prediction...Haye to win a tight points decision despite taking a knock down.

Haye vs Valuev - David Taunts Goliath

With less than a month remaining until the showdown between the biggest man in boxing and the man with arguably the biggest mouth, David Haye has decided to go on the offensive in the way he knows best.

Hate him or love him you've got to admit Haye is trying his best to single handedly spice up the the dull heavyweight division. After the disappointment of his matchup with Klitschko being called off, he has once again set about winding up his giant opponent, polarising fans in the process.

So for his latest trick Haye has decided to stage a fake press press conference complete with a man in a mask dressed as Valuev. Add to this the cardboard cut out of Valuev which he knocks the head off. So is the 7 foot Valuev going to be riled by this? If not I wonder what he thought about Haye's other thoughts...

"He's an ugly type of fighter, he tries to lean on you, tries to brawl and comes out with a really hairy chest that gets matted and is disgusting."

"I've never been a big fan of the matted hair in my face. The size I am, I sort of come up to his chest and apparently the word around the campfire is that he doesn't smell too sweet."

"I've talked to a few guys that have been in the ring with him and they say that's the first thing they notice, just the stench."

"Hopefully he runs a cold tap over himself or someone hoses him down outside before he comes in."

You can watch the video of the "press conference" here