IBO, IBF, WBO and WBA World Heavyweight Title Fight: Wladimir Klitschko UD12 David Haye
One week on from Macklin - Sturm and another Brit was losing on points in Germany, but on this occasion there could be no complaints. Haye came into the fight on the back of a lot of claims about what he would do to the champion but was never able to live up to his hype, with Klitschko proving too big for the natural cruiserweight and a comfortable winner.
Before the fight even started we had a return to the days of the ridiculous ring-walks. I'm not sure there was a need for a black cab, red phone box, park bench, interactive newspaper, Lennox Lewis or George foreman, but for some reason they were all there. Added to this was a 20 minute wait whilst Haye remained in his dressing room, probably in the name of 'mind games', leaving Jimmy Lennon Jnr to fill for time in the middle of the ring.
Eventually the fight got underway and very quickly settled into a pattern that never changed. It was expected that Klitschko would stick his left hand out to keep Haye at a distance and he disappointed nobody by starting with exactly that. What was less expected was that Haye would be unable to find his way around it. Though the jabs that landed were scoring punches they were not heavy, and never had Haye in trouble, but he was forced to fight from the outside. When he did try to attack it was from distance, meaning he threw lunging punches. Because of the lack of balance there was no great power and he wasn't able to turn them into combinations. In addition Klitschko was quick enough to step back as soon as Haye launched an attack, meaning the majority of punches fell short and at times he over-balanced, albeit often with a helping hand.
Haye had been talking in the build up of a way to counter Klitschko's physical presence when up close and he did this by going straight to the canvas whenever the Ukrainian leaned on him. It was successful early on in the fight and lead to a point deduction for Klitschko, but after that the referee grew tired of it and started warning Haye about going down too easily. In the 11th Haye missed a punch, Klitschko pushed down on him once more, and this time it was given as a knock down leading to a standing 8-count. It was a poor decision, but Haye could easily have faced a point deduction for his continual flops to the canvas.
Because of the dominance of the Klitschko jab there were fairly few big punches landed by either boxer. Klitschko took a couple of rounds before he started throwing the cross right but in the fifth landed one flush to the side of Haye's head. The Londoner took it looked unhurt, able to move off the ropes to prevent further punches landing. He took a few more as the fight went on, and landed some big rights of his own, but neither fighter ever looked in trouble, nor came under sustained pressure.
At the end of the fight Haye revealed that he had broken the little toe on his right foot three weeks before the bout, and that this prevented him from pushing off properly and so executing his game plan, but it's difficult to see how it would have made much difference. The riddle he failed to solve was how to get inside the jab and this was less about pushing off, and more about speed and size. Klitschko was too big for him and quick enough to put himself out of range when needed, and was so dominant that one judge had him winning every round. Though others scored it closer, it would have been difficult to find anyone who thought Haye actually won.
Where Haye goes from here is unknown. there is talk of one more fight before he hangs up his gloves in October but surely a rematch is unlikely. It was a clear and comfortable victory for Klitschko, and given his dislike of Haye you wonder why he would put himself through the nonsense of a build up; likewise for Vitaly. So it's most likely that Haye will retire after one more fight against someone he'll comfortably beat within a few rounds for what will be an anti-climactic end to his career.
Cruiserweight: Ola Afolabi KO1 Terry Dunstan
One of two undercard fights shown on the Sky Box Office bill and a very short one. Dunstan looked every one of his 42 years and Afolabi was comfortably winning the first round when he detonated a right that had the ref waving the fight off before Dunstan hit the canvas. A similar punch to the one that knocked out Macarinelli and the sort of one-punch power that fans love to see.
Flyweight: Ashley Sexton draw Mike Robinson
Not a particularly great fight with neither boxer looking to have the power to hurt the other. There was a lot of action but it was scrappy and unsatisfying, to the extent that despite having a lot of time to fill the sky coverage skipped a few of the early rounds altogether.
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