By John Wight – Something is beginning to stink about the hype that’s been flying around from various quarters in the aftermath of David Haye’s victory over Nikolei Valuev for the WBA heavyweight title in Nuremberg on Saturday.
Let’s be clear from the start: the fight on Saturday, which pitted the freakish Valuev against Britain’s David Haye, was a crushing disappointment. Throughout the entire fight, from the first to the last round, Haye hardly threw a shot, and the bulk of the shots he did throw were single shots. He certainly demonstrated that he can move and stay out of trouble for 12 rounds, and his reflexes and speed proved too much for the lumbering Russian giant, who fell into the trap of chasing his much smaller and elusive opponent around the ring the entire night..
The fact that Haye hurt his right hand in the early rounds explains his lack of aggression and any attempt to live up to his pre-fight prediction of a knockout. And he did wobble the Russian near the end with a hard right hand-left hook combination. Yet, despite that, judging by the analysis from some of Britain’s better known boxing writers and pundits, you could be forgiven for thinking that David Haye put in a performance on Saturday night in Germany that combined a precocious Ali’s upset against the terrifying Sonny Liston with Tyson at his awesome best.
For example, writing in The Independent on Monday, the ever popular Steve Bunce began his article thus: ‘David Haye staged a glorious heist here on Saturday night to beat Nikolai Valuev for the World Boxing Association title, shock his doubters and become heavyweight boxing’s most desired fighter.’
To describe what took place on Saturday as glorious is surely a stretch that would have Haye himself squirming in embarrassment.
Yet it gets even worse. Later in the same article, Bunce writes: ‘Haye won by not getting hit and it was a glorious and long-overdue reminder that modern boxing is the product of something once called the noble art of self-defence.’
Yes, Steve, boxing is the noble art of self-defence, but what you’ve conveniently forgotten in your undoubted exuberance is the fact that this particular noble art requires that whilst making your opponent miss with his punches, you do in fact hit him with punches of your own. On Saturday night the new WBA champion demonstrated his ability to do the former, but the latter part of the equation was conspicuous by its absence.
Worse than the analysis of Steve Bunce, however, has been the post-fight analysis of the Guardian’s Kevin Mitchell. Every day since the fight took place, Mitchell has endowed his readers with such gushing praise for the London-based heavyweight champion that it seems obvious that he witnessed a different fight to the one that everyone else saw.
The fact is that based on nothing more than ring achievement, David Haye is yet to match the feat of Danny Williams in vanquishing Mike Tyson, much less come anywhere close to the achievements of Lennox Lewis, whose name has crept into the analysis of the aforementioned pundits alongside David Haye’s.
Now I’m now one to begrudge any fighter his just desserts when it comes to receiving the credit and praise they deserve. In fact I am definitely one of those who believe that any man who climbs through the ropes is worthy of praise. As for David Haye, he is undoubtedly a breath of fresh air in a heavyweight division that has for far too long been moribund and devoid of the excitement and drama of earlier epochs. But in over-egging the pudding when it comes to his victory in Germany, boxing’s literati have merely illustrated the danger of perhaps getting too close to the fighters they cover, in the process reminding us of the kind of overblown hype that has largely been responsible for the rise in popularity of its MMA counterpart.
If Saturday’s fight had taken place in the US rather than Germany there is no doubt that you wouldn’t have been able to hear the commentary for the boos from the crowd forced to sit through it. It was a terrible fight, which proved interesting only due to the spectacle of of watching a man of Valuev’s dimensions in the ring. And whilst in no way a bad boxer, the Russian is not in the same league as the Klitschkos, who for my money are still not good enough have been able to hold a candle to Lennox Lewis in his pomp.
Good luck to David Haye. I genuinely hope he goes on to carve out a legacy as the dynamic, exciting and charismatic heavyweight champion that his fans and adherents already believe him to be. But, please, for the sake of the sport, let’s have less hype and more insightful analysis from those whose job it is to describe the action for the public at large.