Congratulations David Haye. Magnificent effort. Fact.

[JazMerkin]

I don't see how he is defending the indefensible

Haye was a smaller guy moving up from a lower division and in the circumstances he fought a plucky fight and made a decent effort. No way did I expect him to go 12 rounds, when bigger, and I believed better fighters, like Tony Thompson and Eddie Chambers both failed.

But he made a decent go of it. The first few rounds were very entertaining no matter what anybody says and it was only in the second half of the fight when the fight started slipping away from him that he reverted to the survival type tactics adopted by all of Wlad's opponents.

He lost because Wlad is a very very good world champion. He didn't disgrace himself in the ring and put up a decent effort in a very difficult challenge.

Sure his prefight claims were made to look silly, and his excuses afterwards were pretty laughable but there wasn't anything wrong with his efforts in the ring imo.

People who are complaining either wanted to see him get knocked out, or else just wanted him to throw caution to the wind and go out slugging and either knock out Wlad, or be knocked out, probably didn't care either way, just wanted some good action.

But it's different when you're the actual guy in the ring taking the shots.

For those who bought the card and feel ripped off, well don't be a mug next time.

Sign up to a stream site and watch it for $5, the best stream sites have high def streams now. I watched it at 720p on my 40in lcd in the lounge as part of $10 monthly stream fee for all boxing, ufc and other sports.

It was great.

I totally agree with this. I actually thought that it was fairly tense for the first 5 or 6 rounds, before Wlad completely took control until the 12th.

So many of the people who seem so disgusted are the same ones who said Haye had nothing to offer, wouldn't win a minute of any round & that it would only last as long as Wlad wanted it to.

I do believe he chose the wrong tactics for Wlad, where more concerted pressure in the early-middle rounds would have been better, especially when you facing one of the most technically astute boxers in the sport. But, it's not like he didn't have moments. What's interesting about the tactics is that Booth chose to use the same tactics that he did for the Groves-DeGale fight (tactics that meant Groves lost the fight on my card), but which were so heavily praised on that occasion. This leads me to believe that it is the personalities that people let their opinions be governed by too much. Yes, Haye set himself up for a fall, but it's always easy to criticize from the safe side of the ropes.

I really love the differing attitudes based on the boxers. Khan got pilloried for a shite PPV because his opponent didn't engage (but that's okay, because it was his game plan), while Haye (who did a fuck of a lot more than McCloskey) gets shit for not charging into Wlad's right hand windmilling. Meanwhile Hatton got abuse for a short fight, because he did exactly that. You just can't win with British fans

[Kev]

I don't see how he is defending the indefensible

Haye was a smaller guy moving up from a lower division and in the circumstances he fought a plucky fight and made a decent effort. No way did I expect him to go 12 rounds, when bigger, and I believed better fighters, like Tony Thompson and Eddie Chambers both failed.

But he made a decent go of it. The first few rounds were very entertaining no matter what anybody says and it was only in the second half of the fight when the fight started slipping away from him that he reverted to the survival type tactics adopted by all of Wlad's opponents.

He lost because Wlad is a very very good world champion. He didn't disgrace himself in the ring and put up a decent effort in a very difficult challenge.

Sure his prefight claims were made to look silly, and his excuses afterwards were pretty laughable but there wasn't anything wrong with his efforts in the ring imo.

People who are complaining either wanted to see him get knocked out, or else just wanted him to throw caution to the wind and go out slugging and either knock out Wlad, or be knocked out, probably didn't care either way, just wanted some good action.

But it's different when you're the actual guy in the ring taking the shots.

For those who bought the card and feel ripped off, well don't be a mug next time.

Sign up to a stream site and watch it for $5, the best stream sites have high def streams now. I watched it at 720p on my 40in lcd in the lounge as part of $10 monthly stream fee for all boxing, ufc and other sports.

It was great.

I totally agree with this. I actually thought that it was fairly tense for the first 5 or 6 rounds, before Wlad completely took control until the 12th.

So many of the people who seem so disgusted are the same ones who said Haye had nothing to offer, wouldn't win a minute of any round & that it would only last as long as Wlad wanted it to.

I do believe he chose the wrong tactics for Wlad, where more concerted pressure in the early-middle rounds would have been better, especially when you facing one of the most technically astute boxers in the sport. But, it's not like he didn't have moments. What's interesting about the tactics is that Booth chose to use the same tactics that he did for the Groves-DeGale fight (tactics that meant Groves lost the fight on my card), but which were so heavily praised on that occasion. This leads me to believe that it is the personalities that people let their opinions be governed by too much. Yes, Haye set himself up for a fall, but it's always easy to criticize from the safe side of the ropes.

I really love the differing attitudes based on the boxers. Khan got pilloried for a shite PPV because his opponent didn't engage (but that's okay, because it was his game plan), while Haye (who did a fuck of a lot more than McCloskey) gets shit for not charging into Wlad's right hand windmilling. Meanwhile Hatton got abuse for a short fight, because he did exactly that. You just can't win with British fans

Yes but the difference in the Khan fight was that the referee clearly saved Khan because he could sense that Mckloskey was saving himself for the late rounds.

And aside from winning every round on all the judges scorecards Khan was boxing very subpar.