What's next for Haye

[Rantcatrat]

Is it me or are Haye and Khan quite comparable? Both British, both two division champions, both fast, quality athletes with good boxing skills, and both lack quality chins. Haye and Khan were each starched by much lesser boxers, Haye by Carl Thompson as a cruiserweight, Khan by Breides Prescott as a lightweight.

Looking at the comparison, Haye may have the edge over Khan for two reasons: (1) he hides his primary deficiency better than Khan and (2) he has one-punch knockout power. With regard to hiding his deficiency, it's not entirely proven because Haye hasn't faced the equivalent of Danny Garcia as a heavyweight: a good, undefeated boxer who can crack a bit. I would probably put Povetkin in that group. I can't recall when it was, maybe in the beginning of the third round, but I believe Chisora connected once well against Haye, and Haye visibly reacted to it, and Chisora is no puncher. With Wlad, Wlad is sufficiently disciplined that he never gave Haye an opportunity to touch him without Haye exposing himself, and Haye couldn't risk getting touched because of his chin deficiency. A lot will be told about Haye when we see if he can handle a punch of a heavyweight. I'm not sure Haye will give us the chance to see it though, unless it is against Vitali. Even Vitali, at 40, however, doesn't have one-punch knockout power. However, he may have enough to cause Haye to fight safe the whole fight.

With regard to his power, no one can deny Haye has big punching power that Khan just doesn't possess. Haye has starched too many big men for that. It's got to be in the top ten of power currently. The punching power also gives Haye another device to mask his chin deficiency.

Haye took decent shots off Wladimir. Not many but he definitely took them. I think his chin is actually a little underrated. The shot Chisora hit him with about 10 seconds after the bell to end the 3rd that caught Haye completely going the wrong way looked a good shot and Haye just smiled and walked back to the corner. He got hit with much lesser shots at CW that floored him. I think the weight draining caused a lot of his problems back in the day. Not saying Haye has the punch resistance of Evander all of a sudden I just think he takes a better shot than some on here think.

Oh yeah and Khan is only a 1 weight champ too.

RJJ, you feel Haye was "weight-drained" at cruiserweight? He seems to have the body build that fits a good sized cruiserweight or small heavyweight, but I wouldn't characterize him as "weight-drained" in the sense of the word we usually use to describe fighters in other divisions.

Also, you attribute Haye's "lesser chin" at CW than at HW to his weight? Again, I'm at a loss here, because to me, chin resistance has always been independent of weight. Matter of fact, it would seem that if anything his punch resistance would go down at HW, where bigger guys are throwing a lot harder punches.

David has said in the past that he struggled to make the CW limit. And yes, draining down in weight can have an adverse effect on punch resistence. Caused by dehydration. Look it up.

He weighed in for this fight though probably at around 205-207, considering the denim he was wearing and the rest of his clothes. I agree it's completely dependent on the individual, but in Haye's case, I don't think weight has affected his ability to take a punch all that much because he hasn't got that much bigger. When you take into consideration what cruiserweight Haye actually weighed at the time of the fight, as opposed to the weigh in, the difference to his fighting weight at heavyweight is negligible. I would argue that he has a below-average chin, as far as heavyweights are concerned. He has less of a chin than any other top-ten heavyweight. Wouldn't you agree?

Same can be said of Amir Khan. It actually can be argued that Khan has shown more punch resistance than Haye in a certain respect. Remember the Maidana fight, he got hit with some sledgehammer shots and remained upright. I have not seen Haye get hit with anything resembling those shots as a heavyweight, which again, goes to show that he does a better job of protecting his deficiency.

We can all agree that Chisora is a very light-punching heavyweight so being able to take his punch doesn't say very much for your chin one way or the other. Recall the number of punches that Helenius took from Chisora; he didn't seem fazed at all? I don't remember Wlad hitting Haye with any crisp shots. There were a quite a few good glancing blows, but nothing crisp. In any event, nothing like the shot Khan took from Garcia.

My comparison was just that they are both world-level British former champions, that are fast and athletic, and that lack world class chins. We saw what happened to Khan when he stepped up to a puncher. It would be fun to see what would happen to Haye. He might pass with flying colors. I'm not a fan of Haye's, but he put on a good performance last weekend, and he brings a lot of fans. It made me interested enough to want to see Haye climb the ranks a bit at heavyweight. See him tested against guys his size that have a little pop to their punches and see how he does. Adamek, Chambers aren't those guys, but they are good boxers. Arreola and Povetkin would be more fun simply because of the question of whether they could get to Haye, and if and when he did, how Haye would react. Haye would be favored in those fights though, don't get me wrong.