IT HAS been billed by the promoters and hyped to the high heavens as David versus Goliath, and for once the comparisons are not fanciful. David Haye's challenge to Nikolai Valuev for the Russian giant's WBA heavyweight title in Nuremberg, Germany, on Saturday is a physical mismatch to rival any in history, including the TKO when the future King David felled the gorilla from Gath with a sling shot.
Haye really could do with a weapon to redress Valuev's massive physical advantages. Even if the Russian comes in at his lightest-ever weight, he will still outweigh Haye, no smout at 16st, by more than six stones, and stand nine inches taller at
7ft. At 48 ins, Valuev's waist is six inches thicker than Haye's chest.
The sheer size of Valuev against a man who is, after all, a natural cruiserweight and was three-time world champion at that lower weight, should make the Russian a warm favourite against a contender who is having only his second contest at heavyweight.
Interestingly for fans of form, Haye's first contest in the top weight division was against Monte Barrett last November. He stopped the American in the fifth round, while Valuev could only do so in the 11th round of their title fight in 2006. What's more, Haye will weigh the same and probably have the same hit and run tactics as Ruslan Chagaev, the only man ever to beat Valuev. Portents?
Haye has been mercilessly taunting Valuev, making fun of 'Goliath' by getting sparring partners to wear platform boots, and knocking the cardboard head off a pantomime giant wearing an ugly mask. Those cartoon performances are not the real Haye, however. Speaking yesterday, an articulate Haye showed an acute awareness of the main theme pervading this contest – size matters – and gave off an air of quiet determination. Gone was the trash-talking, stunt-pulling Haye of recent days, replaced by a man with genuine respect for his opponent, citing particularly the fearsome left jab that has knocked out opponents on its own.
"Some people who haven't seen him box just look at the size statistics and say he can't really fight," said Haye. "But when you have only lost one of 51 fights, and beat a lot of guys that were quicker than you, you have to say he finds ways to win. People look at the slow body movement, but they don't pay attention to the things which have won him so many fights, like his underrated jab speed.
"I have respect for what he does as an athlete. It is quite admirable that someone as big as him can hold his technique together for 12 rounds and throw 70 to 80 punches per round – for a heavyweight, that's a good output. He also has the stamina for 12 rounds because he doesn't load up on his punches. That's because he doesn't have to, he's so big and heavy the weight of his arms is probably the equivalent of someone my size loading up and throwing a punch. But no matter what he does, I have something to counteract it. If there's a weakness anywhere in him, I will find it."
Asked if knocking out Valuev would be one of the best achievements by a heavyweight in boxing history, Haye was surprisingly modest with his reply.
"No-one has ever been able to knock him down in 50 fights," said Haye, who has stopped 21 of his 23 opponents, "so if I was able to do so, it would be a very impressive achievement, but greatness is a matter of longevity and consistency which should be attributed to people after they have retired."
Haye has his own boxing brains trust in the shape of Britain's former world champion Lennox Lewis: "We've run through some tactical bits and pieces, some of the stuff he would try and implement if he was fighting Valuev. I was happy that his game plan was similar to the one I have been working on for the past few months. Lennox Lewis is one of the greatest heavyweights of all time, to my mind, and on his day he could have beaten any heavyweight in history, even Muhammad Ali."
Haye suggested he had conditioned himself to take a heavyweight's punch, while maintaining his cruiserweight's speed and mobility. He has also maintained a rigid focus to save adrenaline and energy for the fight, and would not even contemplate the untold riches he could earn by beating Valuev. "The money in boxing follows success in the ring, and it's that I'm focused on," said Haye. "I truly believe I am supposed to be the heavyweight champion of the world."
As Haye suggested about Lewis, any decent heavyweight can always beat another decent heavyweight, depending on who has an 'on' or 'off' night, and it's no different against Goliath. He said: "If I know my opponent can beat me then that makes me raise my game, and Valuev can beat me if I do the wrong thing on the night."
If Haye is on his game and Valuev is not, the Briton can win. If the challenger is in any way suspect, the contest will come down to avoirdupois and the Russian will simply outweigh the younger man in the clinches and tire him out before applying the deadly jab from a tree-trunk masquerading as a human arm.
In that eventuality, David's only hope against Goliath will not be a slingshot but a howitzer.
Haye v Valuev in Nuremberg is live in HD on Sky Box Office on Saturday night. Call 08442 410 888 to order.
