Haye Disappoints In One Sided Loss To Klitschko.

By Sheldan Keay

With all the trash talking finally over, the two year wait for David Haye to challenge for the honour of being the first man since Lennox Lewis to unify the heavyweight division, and attempt to cement his place as one of the best heavyweights in a long time was upon us, all that stood in his way was the number one heavyweight in the world Wladimir Klitschko, and we soon found out why Klitschko is indeed number one. 

The fight started with Klitschko immediatly taking the centre of the ring, and this would be repeated throughout the fight. Klitschko did what he has done to each of his recent previous opponents and utilised his jab to perfection in order to keep Haye at bay. Haye rarely provided a threat to Klitschko, and it appeared that all he could offer the Ukrainian in the form of an attack was an looping over hand right that was thrown several feet away from Klitschko, who in all but two occasions was about to avoid the shot. The two times Haye did land, Klitschko was able to hold Haye and prevent him from getting in any follow up shots when Haye ran in looking for the knockout. Quite disappointingly, Haye appeared to purposely go down whenever Klitschko leaned on top of him, and on several occasions it was quite clear that Haye could have easily remained on his feet. Haye's actions did result in the referee deducting a point from Klitschko in round 7 but after Klitschko's trainer Emanuel Steward reacted angrily about this decision,  the referee appeared to take no interest in Haye's antics any longer, and instead gave Haye a count in round 11 when he again decided to fall to the canvas.

Haye's ability to avoid many of Klitschko's shots did prove key at times, as Klitschko was unable to connect with any follow up to his jab on many occasions. Klitschko did appear to have Haye in trouble midway through the fight, but Haye was able to recover well get right back into the action. Haye also had Klitschko wobbled in the 3rd round and in the 12th round, but Klitschko also showed good composure to immediately recover, proving that despite the talk of both men having weak chins, they both took several shots well and appeared to show no real sign of being hurt by them. After 12 rounds of rather lacklustre action, the fight went to the judges scorecards, on all three saw Klitschko the victor, with one sided margins of 118-108, 117-109 and 116-110. 

Haye revealed after the fight that he was nursing a broken toe, and he felt that this was the reason for his loss. "I couldn't push on my right leg. I broke my toe on my right foot. I couldn't push off the right foot to throw the right hand. I thought adrenaline would get me through it but it was tough. It's incredibly frustrating. We were thinking about pulling out three weeks ago but we couldn't with all these great fans here. My plan was to win this fight but for whatever reason it wasn't meant to be today. It's frustrating because I'm so powerful, but I couldn't land many punches.I've got a lot of respect for Wladimir and he's a great fighter. Everything that was said in the lead up was for him to come and get me so I could land my shots." Despite the heated trash talk from Haye leading up to the fight, it was evident that he respected Klitschko post fight, and this was shown when the two finally embraced with a hand shake after the bout, there was no denying that Klitschko deserved it, as he outstruck Haye in 11 of the 12 rounds.

Haye made it clear that he had no intention to continue fighting after his 31st birthday in October, but after his loss to Klitschko, Haye has now stated that if he was to get a rematch, he would consider postponing his retirement plans. Haye stated "I’d love the opportunity to do it again. In an ideal world, let’s do it again.”

They say that if it makes dollars, it makes sense. He said he’d knock me out, that I’d be his 50th knockout. I do believe I was not at my best. If I had been 100pc, maybe it would have made a difference, but we’ll never know. If I were to fight him again, I’d do things differently. The Klitschko camp has since said that they have no intention of granting Haye a rematch, but if one was to culminate, then Haye would have a lot of work to do if he is to stand any chance of defeating Wladimir Klitschko, as Saturday showed that Klitschko is a league above the former WBA heavyweight champion David Haye.

Follow Sheldan on Twitter: @SheldanKeay