Just rewatched Wlad vs. Haye.

[Jack Napier]

fight ****** and it was Haye's fault
been much worse, but the hype was big, fight dulled out

[Steven Adams]

i missed it live.. but when i did watch it... only thing that was missing was a KO. wasnt as bad as 'some would say

[Drunk Punch]

It was good to see to HWs moving with speed over all 12 rounds. Both in great shape.

I thought Haye showed great speed but poor tactics, he was way too cautious. If he had taken some chances like he did in R12 then it could have been a very different night. Wlad was just too clever and experienced.

[MindBat]

Yeah, Wlad dominated the fight, but couldn't rule out Haye, he had enough power to put Wlad in trouble.

About people that were expecting Mike Tyson or something like that, that's just not logical. Wlad was going to fight the same way he always fights, and Haye was going to look to lure Wlad into his trap to land a hard counter. Wlad was smarter in this fight, his gameplan was better, but Haye did what he could, he knew that if he tried to exchange punches with Wlad he would be KOd...

I was expecting Haye to put up a good fight and even KO Wlad. I, like most everyone, wasn't expecting it to go 12.

[Tobi.G]

I liked the fight, of course I like Wlad so a lot of guys will say that's the only reason why I liked it, but the fact is that it was a very tense fight, you couldn't tell if something was going to happen next, and because both guys had KO power you could say that at any moment with just one shot any guy could be KOd.

exactly, the fight was not that bad. Forget all the talk before the fight and you have a good fight, much better than the other Klitschko fights. Haye was far better then the last opponents.

[Tobi.G]

Yeah I hear you with that but it just seems like common sense that if your fighter is winning and his weakness is his chin there is no reason for him to open up unless he was behind.

I think it was after 6 or 7 seven rounds, the fight was verry even to that point so Steward thought it could be close. I also thought it was close to that point to be honest. George Foreman scored the fight a draw, lewis gave Haye no rounds. I think both scored verry wrong....

[Rome-By-Ko]

Call me crazy but the fight wasn't that bad. Both guys took flush shots and stood up pretty well and the fight was at a very high speed and very tactical. I wouldn't mind watching Haye against Vitaly or even better with a guy like Adamek or Arreola.

I think Haye against guy's like Adamek or Arreola are fights that Haye can win..Haye is not a bad fighter(reminds me of a bigger version of Pascal)but a fight with Vitaly would be a career ending beating for Haye..Vitaly fights at a different pace and risk more in his fights esp when forced to exchange..Wlad should fight Arreola if Arreola wins a few more..

[hebi]

I enjoyed the fight more or less. Wlad was boxing beautifully, and I like the atmosphere they had there in Germany.

[intoccabile]

I loved the fight... very seldom do i find any fight boring honestly. I found it very fast and technical. IMO it showed how good Wlad actually is. Dude is poise as hell and LIGHTENING fast. His judging of distance is great too.

[nomadman]

I saw the fight live with a bunch of mates, and you could cut the tension with a knife. There was a really palpable sense that anything could change on a dime, and early on Haye's body language, his grinning, his hands down, taunting and the relative ease with which he was avoiding Wlad's shots and landing hard ones of his own made me feel like we were in for a much better fight than I was expecting. By the third I was genuinely getting concerned that Haye might pull it off. Wlad looked really nervous coming to the ring, and that nervous expression didn't leave his face throughout the whole fight. He was also having quite a bit more trouble than usual landing his hard shots and looking (I hate to perpetuate a stereotype) a bit limited and robotic. Obviously the fight in hindsight wasn't a classic, but the uncertainty of not knowing what would happen at the time made the fight pretty tense viewing for me.

I will definitely say that Haye surprised me with how much better he was than I thought, as well as how much better he could take a hard shot (I already knew Wlad could take several hard shots from Haye). His head movement was excellent, and his timing and punch selection in the early going was spot on. Like in the Valuev fight, Haye displayed a new facet to his game, and showed substantial development as a fighter. Ultimately it was futile of course, since he was fighting someone so much better and more experienced than him, but I won't let that blind me into blanket trashing his performance. (the toe issue is another matter entirely...)

A final thought:

People familiar with me know I've never been the biggest Haye fan, but I wish to hell that he wasn't such a foul-mouthed arrogant diva because he possesses genuine skill and charisma as a fighter, and brings that razor edge uncertainty to a fight that makes even dull contests interesting. Matched up right I think he could be involved in some classics. But David has to understand now that he's no longer Mr Big Shot. He can't afford to fight once a year against no hopers. He needs to fight often, and he needs to fight fan-friendly fights like he did in his Cruiser days. Whether he'll be willing to do this at this stage of his career or not, I don't know; in fact I highly doubt. But that's what needs to happen if he wants to stick around. He's not getting the rematch, and he doesn't deserve to, and I'm skeptical if he gets (or wants) the Vitali match either. That still leaves plenty of decent opponents to fight: Adamek, Chambers, Povetkin, Chagaev, Boytsov, all men who are more or less the same size as him and bring a different set of skills into the ring. Even guys like Perez or Chisora would make for good matchups. The future's still bright if he's willing to put the work in and drop his obnoxious attitude.

I won't shed a tear if he ****s off to Holywood, but I do think the heavyweight division would be a poorer place without him.