I was surprised at how well Haye did in this fight (well, certain parts of it) - his punch resistance especially.
I kinda think if Wladimir can't stop Haye then I'd struggle to think who would - Vitali on sheer volume maybe?
I would like Haye to fight on, no reason for him to retire in my opinion.
Playing Devil's advocate here - what if Haye fought with the Valuev gameplan and had the majority of rounds similar to the 12th of said fight (with possible knockdowns)?
It's certainly unlikely but it's not infeasible. Haye might be able to deck Wlad with balance shots and taking him by surprise but might not wat or be able to clsoe the show.
They won't rematch now but I have a feeling they'll meet again somewhere down the line. Wouldnt be surprised it Maidana ended up stopping a titlist and fighting Khan again in unification.
I'd give Haye the edge on the multi-division champ part cause he managed to unify the WBC, WBA and WBO belts in two fights, which also made him lineal champ at that weight. I regard that higher than holding one title in two different divisions.
I appreciate that Adamek has made more defences overall, but Haye does lose out on that cause he moved up to HW. It would have been good if he'd stayed and fought Cunningham tho, I admit that.
You mention that Haye's opponents went on to do nothing, but to be fair Barrett did go on to get a controvertial draw (many said he won) agaisnt Tua, who was supposed to kill him in the first round. Not only that but he was the first guy to legitimately put Tua on his ass. So he did manage to do something after his loss.
It's medical routine for any fighter that is stopped to be given oxygen, no need to mention that.
I definitely prefer Adamek's attitude (both in and out of the ring) and he's a damn good fighter (very well rounded). Although he challenges himself and fights all comers, the fact he never unified a division and has yet to pick up a HW title puts him just behind Haye for me. Skillset and attitude aren't enough to overcome titles for me.
Adamek will have a better HW career than Haye though, i'm almost certain of that.
Unfortunately that is all you Gayevid fans have - "would have, could have, should have". He didn't, just like he isn't facing a Klitschko. When you look at Gayevid' accomplishments at CW, he doesn't even rank in the top 10 CW of all time, and the CW division is young as hell. He is barely even a blip on the HW record books.
Post your top 10 CW of all time.
Off the top of my head Holyfield, Toney, Jirov, Hide, Adamek, Gomez, Bell, Mormeck, Hill, Maske. Mormeck was kind off shot when Gayevid beat him.
Um .. no Carlos De Leon or Johnny Nelson?
I honestly wouldn't put Toney in; his win over Jirov isn't enough for that imo.
Where would you rank Braithewaite?
Haye cherry-picked old (Fragomeni, Thompson) and glass-chinned (Maccarinelli, Gurov) cruiserweights.
He avoided slick (Cunningham) young/tough (Wlodarczyk, Huck) and difficult to KO (Arslan, Adamek, Jones) cruiserweights.
But he did, however, pick up the WBC/WBA/WBO titles (becomming lineal champ). Which is an accomplishment. Literally a textbook, written on paper, for the records accomplishment.
Some people have it, some don't. You can learn to get over it a little imo but you'll never get completely comfortable with it.
I competed in amateur boxing and I do mma now, originally I was terrified of getting hit but you do get used to it. I've never taken a full shot in mma but it does worry me. With headgear and all that I quickly found that shots weren't too bad (I did spar a lot with a friend who's 6'6 and over 17 stone), so fighting people my size was fine.
I have a feeling i'll never get used to taking shots in mma, small glvoes and legs/shins is something i'm gonna work to just flat out avoid.
In short; yes you can overcome the trepidation of taking a shot somewhat but everyone has their limit, and you'd struggle to overcome that no matter what you did. Taking shots does help your confidence - me taking a jab from the aforementioned friend said to me that I could take shots from a guy that size, so you kind of lose that subconscious idea that all shots will drop you.
So you are saying Barrett is still relevant at all in the HW division because he managed to knock down an old Tua who was never even a world champ to being with? The Barrett that Wlad destroyed 10 years ago? LOL
Not one single fighter that Haye fought at HW is relevant anymore one could say they weren't even relevant when Haye fought them.
Where did I say he was more relevant? You stated all his opponents went on to do nothing, I merely mentioned that wasn't strictly the case.
And let's be honest here, the only guy Adamek has fought at HW who's even remotely likely to be relevant is Arreola. Which says a lot.
He actually only went up to 197 initially (sorry to be picky) and was actually just short of 5 months between that and his previous LHW fight.
You also have to remember that he was cutting a LOT to get into LHW so he was probably weighing in at like 185-190 on fight night.
Even at the lowest thats 12lbs gain in 5 months, which isn't anything too special for a full time athlete.
Human weight can fluctuate a lot through simple means - I usually put on about 5lbs during the day through eating and drinking alone.
Pure god given ability. Every so often people come long with freakish abilities and in terms of power he was at the peak.
I saw an interview with him once and he stated he never did any exercises to work on his power; he just had it.
Haye is the biggest coward in boxing history.
Anybody who supports that pathetic pussy Haye should be permanently banned from this forum.
Oh no wait, here we go.
Look at this squirrel, and look at some of his other posts, they're all the same shit, calling the Klitschkos nazis. He has also called me nazi via PM and although I reported it, he still has not been banned.
Yeah that I can totally agree on, Pirao.
I don't get how just cause accusations start flying everyone seems to become an expert on both legal and illegal supplementation.
Threadstarter, you think if companies go to such lengths to develop drugs that go undetected through countless ways of testing that they'd let loose ones that screamed out "STEROIDS" just by the physical appearance of the person in question?
Seriously, genuine question here, what are you looking out for when you're visually assessing if someone is on "steroids" (which is such an immense umbrella term I can't even be bothered to dsecribe).
wait, are you 21 ?!? haha I'm older then you, I'm 22. You just started watching boxing, kid?
Hahaha what? that doesn't even make sense.
So ****ing what you're 22, i'm older than you, and I know for a fact you've only just started watching boxing.
I think if Paulie catches Khan coming in/off balance, with a well timed shot he can deck him. Dunno about hurt, though.
I think a lot of his problems came with his old trainer, and the Hatton fight was a real low for him. Props to him for sticking in there and wanting to see the final bell in that one.
When Paulie turns up in shape and with that immense will to win he can pull off some strange feat, like dropping N'Dou, rocking Diaz, and pushing Cotto back by catching him off balance.
That's why this is so interesting, they both have the potential to pull off a convincing win, but it all comes down to how they deal with each, and how they react when/if things don't go how they want/planned.
Mayorga never was quite the same after Tito smashed his face in.
And Enzo Mac was hardly Foreman but after his annihilation at the hands of Haye his chin went AWOL. Massive drop in confidence.