Vitali Klitschko claims 'preliminary agreement' to fight David Haye

[Zilla]

With the way Vitali looked Saturday I fancy Hayes chances of winning a decision to be honest. Vitali had no snap in his punches and was quite predictable.

Not like Haye looked great in his last fight either

That must mean Haye is shot!!!

It's one thing to be able to predict is going to punch you in the face and another entirely to prevent him from doing so.

[Violent Demise]

With the way Vitali looked Saturday I fancy Hayes chances of winning a decision to be honest. Vitali had no snap in his punches and was quite predictable.

Not like Haye looked great in his last fight either

That must mean Haye is shot!!!

It's one thing to be able to predict is going to punch you in the face and another entirely to prevent him from doing so.

Don't you actually got to be good at one time to be considered shot?

[Fenster]

The difference is, Haye is 29 with possible improvement likely.. Vitali is 38, already been forced into retirement through injury, and looked "old" on saturday. Look how his eyes marked up.

It might not be such a long shot that Haye smashes him up.

[Violent Demise]

The difference is, Haye is 29 with possible improvement likely.. Vitali is 38, already been forced into retirement through injury, and looked "old" on saturday. Look how his eyes marked up.

It might not be such a long shot that Haye smashes him up.

Of course. Just look at the way he smashed up an even slower, less active Nikolay Valuev.

[Fenster]

The difference is, Haye is 29 with possible improvement likely.. Vitali is 38, already been forced into retirement through injury, and looked "old" on saturday. Look how his eyes marked up.

It might not be such a long shot that Haye smashes him up.

Of course. Just look at the way he smashed up an even slower, less active Nikolay Valuev.

I said it's a long shot.

Vitali isn't the mountain that Valuev is. Improvement vs decline. Youth vs injury prone fossil. There's been bigger upsets. Fact.

[eagle]

The difference is, Haye is 29 with possible improvement likely.. Vitali is 38, already been forced into retirement through injury, and looked "old" on saturday. Look how his eyes marked up.

It might not be such a long shot that Haye smashes him up.

Of course. Just look at the way he smashed up an even slower, less active Nikolay Valuev.

I said it's a long shot.

Vitali isn't the mountain that Valuev is. Improvement vs decline. Youth vs injury prone fossil. There's been bigger upsets. Fact.

Name 5 bigger upsets in the last 20 years?

[Fenster]

Of course. Just look at the way he smashed up an even slower, less active Nikolay Valuev.

I said it's a long shot.

Vitali isn't the mountain that Valuev is. Improvement vs decline. Youth vs injury prone fossil. There's been bigger upsets. Fact.

Name 5 bigger upsets in the last 20 years?

Here's five big upsets this year!!!

Mosley-Margarito
Linares-Salgado
Ward-Kessler
Guzman-Funeka
Green-Roy

[Violent Demise]

I said it's a long shot.

Vitali isn't the mountain that Valuev is. Improvement vs decline. Youth vs injury prone fossil. There's been bigger upsets. Fact.

Name 5 bigger upsets in the last 20 years?

Here's five big upsets this year!!!

Mosley-Margarito
Linares-Salgado
Ward-Kessler
Guzman-Funeka
Green-Roy

I have a hard time calling those upsets

[eagle]

I said it's a long shot.

Vitali isn't the mountain that Valuev is. Improvement vs decline. Youth vs injury prone fossil. There's been bigger upsets. Fact.

Name 5 bigger upsets in the last 20 years?

Here's five big upsets this year!!!

Mosley-Margarito
Linares-Salgado
Ward-Kessler
Guzman-Funeka
Green-Roy

I wouldn't call any of those bigger upsets than if Haye beat Vitali, other than maybe the Linares fight. Then again Linares has never proven to be as dominant as Vitali.

[Pugilistic]

I still favor Vitali over Haye.

Vitali didn't look so great against Johnson but that was because Johnson threw literally no punches and was only concerned with defending himself than actually trying to win.

It's hard to look impressive against a fighter like that.

From what i remember, Vitali did look old against Gomez as well. Gomez was a fighter with superior speed and movement.

Vitali at this point is more impressive and dominant against pressure fighters (Peter, Arreola) but fighters who have superior speed and use movement ( Gomez, Johnson) will trouble him more. The funny thing is, Vitali didn't look dominate against Gomez or Johnson but if you watch both fights, he clearly won every round against both.

Haye has both good movement and superior speed but his chin isn't good at all, I see Vitali catching him and getting him out of there.

One problem i do have with Vitali is how he throws punches now. His punches don't have the snap on them like they used to because he throws arm punches.

[Nameless]

I disagree that Vitali did look so bad, Johnson is considered a boxer hard to hit with a very tough style. Vitali landed a couple of times, just not flush often but I don't see how it makes him so lousy compared to before, just because Johnson has a hard style to match. Beside, Valuev didn't use any meaningful jab at all where Klitschko willl and with his huge range he won't miss. Also, his power is a lot more dangerous than what Barrett who did knock down Haye had. I have difficulties to really think that somebody seriously think Haye has a chance against Vitali.

[rjj tszyu]

For the first time, I now think Haye can take both brothers. Vitali really showed signs of decline to me on saturday. I just hope he doesn't look past Ruiz and mess up first.

[Rantcatrat]

Although I asked earlier in the thread, I'll try again, for the people who think Haye will beat Vitali, can you explain your reasoning?

For as bad as Klitschko supposedly looked, did you know he threw more than 1000 punches? A heavyweight throwing a thousand punches? When was the last time that happened? Did you know he also thew 750 jabs? 750 jabs? That is a RECORD for a heavyweight. In fact, no other heavyweight has even come close to that number (the closest according to compubox was 600). Who cares if the jabs weren't strong punches? Moreover, check out the punch deficit: Johnson landed 65 total punches and Klitschko landed 300, Johnson landed 5 total power punches and Klitschko landed 140.

It seems to me that people are confusing a boring performance with a lousy performance. The two aren't the same.

Also, consider that in each fight Vitali somehow manages to dominate with a captial, and violent, D. He comes with a gameplan that is slightly altered for each opponent and it works every, single time. When was the last time he even lost a round? 2003? What makes you think Haye has the key to the puzzle that is Vitali Klitschko? His Hayemaker? Lennox punched harder than Vitali and Haye isn't even close to the Lennox level.

I am not bookie and can't claim to have the insight they have, but it appears that these odds are a classic case of hype getting in the way of logic.

It's a similar situation with the Pacquiao v. Mayweather odds. Pacquiao is the man, but no way he beats Mayweather and the odds are unreasonably close for that fight.

My money is on Mayweather and Klitschko. Fenster, where's yours?

[Fenster]

My money is on Mayweather and Klitschko. Fenster, where's yours?

At the current prices, my money would be on Vitali by KO/TKO/DQ (6/5) and Floyd by PTS (7/4)

I would be HOPING and in no way shocked if Haye beat Vitali and Pac beat Floyd though.

As I said earlier - Vitali is 38, injury prone and I don't care what anyone says or what the statistics say he looked poor TO ME on Saturday night

[Rantcatrat]

My money is on Mayweather and Klitschko. Fenster, where's yours?

At the current prices, my money would be on Vitali by KO/TKO/DQ (6/5) and Floyd by PTS (7/4)

I would be HOPING and in no way shocked if Haye beat Vitali and Pac beat Floyd though.

As I said earlier - Vitali is 38, injury prone and I don't care what anyone says or what the statistics say he looked poor TO ME on Saturday night

I agree with the Vitali and Floyd bets. I also hope Pac beats Floyd. I don't like Haye so I won't hope he wins, but for him, but as in Pac/Floyd, it probably would be good for boxing if Pac and/or Haye wins. I just don't see it happening.

Here's the thing about Vitali, who does he have to beat for people to begin to recognize his greatness? Unlike Floyd's situation, in which people say, Paul Williams or Shane Mosley etc, Vitali doesn't cherry pick, he fights everyone in his division. When he beats Haye and everyone else in the top ten, people will continue to doubt him, fair or not. Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing him knock Valuev out.

With Haye, he received a big boost in publicity from simply challenging the Klitschkos even though he bitched out in the end for business reasons and probably had no intention of actually fighting them. Haye will probably pull more of the same now: make money off their name and continue to fight contenders until they are too old, someone beats them, or they retire. At the end of the day, it makes some business sense too. Why risk losing your marketability when you may be served by Vitali as opposed to stacking ends against lesser opponents?