McDonnell's Spit Bucket by James McDonnell Mar 12th 2008

Saturday night David D Haye, unified three of the four cruiserweight title belts, defeated his domestic rival Enzo Maccarinelli, in the process affirmed his position as the most destructive puncher in the cruiserweight division, and simultaneously devastated my meagre finances as he made a nonsense of my £50 wager on Maccarinelli to win. Following Haye's dramatic and crushing victory I've given the nuclear-fisted Bermondsey boxer a new moniker; David ‘H-Bomb' Haye. The reason? I feel Haye's current nickname, ‘Hayemaker' doesn't do ample enough justice to his phenomenal offensive capabilities. Hayemaker implies that Haye is a wild punching face first boxer, lacking in finesse and accuracy, rather than the display of awesome precision power witnessed as he used annihilated his opponent on Saturday night. Many people are now saying that Enzo was never any threat to Haye, and that the disparity in levels was obvious all along, but hindsight is always 20-20 as they say, and can obfuscate and confuse the facts. Time will tell whether or not Maccarinelli was ever truly an elite level cruiserweight, but he doesn't deserve to be written off after one defeat to the biggest punching fighter in the division. Maccarinelli was still one of the best cruiserweights in the world, I still believe that. Losing to Haye merely proves what most of us thought all along, either man could be stopped if the other dropped a big punch on their opponents chin. The fact is, Haye's fists got their first and did the job. The biggest difference between the two men on the night, outside the obvious fact that one of them was put on their backside and one wasn't, were the concomitant levels of confidence they carried into the ring. As mentioned elsewhere, their ringwalks were like chalk and cheese, Haye sauntering almost casually into the ring whilst Enzo virtually sprinted in. However, I try not to read too much into such things, as different men react differently to the pressures of the big occasion. Pre-fight nerves during the instructions during the introductions were evident in Maccarinelli's sweaty mien, but I've seen fighters emerge victorious before now, despite looking the worse off at the staredown. More marked was how hesitant Enzo Mac was during the brief fight. Much had been made in many quarters about Haye's low left hand and the perilousness of such a tactic, but it was Enzo who was wary of being tagged from the off. It was a genuine concern, but the fact was that Haye's upper body movement, and slipping to left and right made Enzo nervous and hesistant, and from that point on, the die was cast. Once Haye had the first round out of the way, he seemed to just step up a couple of gears, and once he handed the first shocking right hand, the end was in sight. The relaxation that Haye displayed was partly from his demeanour, but also I think, the fact that he had been into the lions den before to face Mormeck on home soil, and also to some extent the chastening experience he had at the hands of Thompson. For Haye, the big occasion was his chance to shine, whereas Enzo hesitated and handed Haye the openings which he took with a rapacious appetite. Perhaps for Enzo, this will turn out to be his ‘Carl Thompson' moment. Perhaps he will realise that he was in over his head too soon, and without the experience necessary to handle a game and dangerous opponent. It did Haye good in the long run, perhaps the same will prove to be true here, time will tell. The fact remains, that as soon as Haye stated putting the punches together, whatever game plan Enzo Calzaghe formulated for him fell to pieces, Enzo did absolutely everything wrong. I find it hard to imagine that Enzo Calzaghe's pre-fight game plan went along the lines of “What I want you to do Enzo, is paw with the jab, stand right in front of Haye, and as soon as he hits you, back off in a straight line to the nearest corner, and remember KEEP THAT BLOODY HEAD OF YOURS UP IN THE AIR.” Enzo simply was not prepared with what Haye brought into the ring. His best wins over Braithwaite and Marcelo Dominguez were against men who simply did not possess Haye's fearsome offensive abilities. His more pedestrian opponents, the Bobby Gunns and Mohamed Azzouis may have artificially inflated his confidence; a confidence which evaporated like alcohol rub under the hot lights in the ring that night. As Mike Tyson used to say ‘they've all got a plan till they get hit.' So, now we know, Haye is the number one cruiserweight in the world, and has nothing really left to prove in the division. I've been hard on Haye in the past, but finally have to concede that he is better than I thought. Ever since he was dropped my Lolenga Mock, and then stopped by Carl Thompson, I've been waiting with the wheels to fall off, and I'll even admit to doing so with some glee. Schadenfreude I think they call it. In some sense I guess it's just ego, when you've told people that you expect someone to fall as they approach the various hurdles of their career, you secretly hope they will fulfil your expectation and, in the process, make you appear sagacious and prescient. The truth is, I was nothing of the sort; and I'm happy to move on, and get behind the Haye bandwagon, if not actually leap on it yet. In the aftermath of the fight, I'd like to give full credit to both men. Haye for coming out and giving arguably the performance of his career. The Mormeck fight may have been bigger in terms of belts on the line, but Haye had more to lose in fighting Maccaranelli. A loss to Mormeck would have been far less damaging, and he could have moved on up to heavyweight having lost to the man recognised as the premier cruiserweight in the world. A loss to Maccarinelli would have made building a profile at heavyweight that much harder. He and Adam Booth have made it clear that they are going to take off some time to allow Haye to put on the ‘necessary' bulk to compete with the bigger boys. I place necessary in inverted commas, because I have my doubts about just how much weight Haye needs to compete at heavyweight. Evander Holyfield, who was there at ringside for the fight, weighed in at 205 lbs for his first unsuccessful challenge of Riddick Bowe; a genuinely big heavyweight at 6' 5” and 235 lbs, and took him all the way to the wire in their first fight, and beat him in the rematch weighing only 217 pounds. Whilst it is doubtful that Haye will ever be mistaken for Holyfield in the chin department, his major advantages seem to be his speed, his subtle but effective feints and head movement, and the fact that his punches arrive with alarming speed, and therefore very little notice. It is that which bombed Polish heavyweight Tomasz Bonin out in one round in April last year, incidentally, Haye weighed in for that fight at ….217 pounds. In looking at the ways to beat Wladimir Klitchsko, who despite his woeful last performance against Sultan Ibragimov, remains the consensus king of the division, we should look at the men who have beaten him previously.  The three men who have beaten Klitchsko did so by either ambushing him early, (Corrie Sanders, another fast power puncher) or by outlasting him and absorbing hellacious levels of punishment (Lamon Brewster and in an early loss Ross Purrity), whilst I can see Haye ambushing big Wlad and putting him over, I certainly cannot see the latter, and to that end putting on 30 pounds in weight seems if anything, counterproductive with the concomitant negative effects it will have on his speed and stamina. Haye appears to have the power already to shock the gun-shy and far from cast-iron behemoth. He also, more importantly has the speed. It's hard to see how bulking up to 230 lbs will benefit him, as he cannot hope to be out strength the hugely strong Klitchsko on the inside. I'll qualify that statement however, by pointing out that Adam Booth appears to have my number when it comes to predictions about his charge Haye. Booth may be a relative newcomer compared to some of the more grizzled trainers in Britain, but he's moved Haye with astonishing confidence and at terrific pace, leading him to the pinnacle of the cruiserweight division, in spite of Steve Cunningham, who holds the IBF belt, Haye has proven himself the best cruiserweight in the world. Of course, no matter how good the trainer, there is only so much they can do to aid their fighter, and once they enter that ring, they're on their own. Enzo Maccaranelli proved that in regard to Enzo Calzaghe, and who knows how well Haye will cope with fighting bigger men with longer reaches, better punch resistance, and perhaps most tellingly, an order of punch power and physical strength he has yet to experience. My guess is that he will do better than I have expected, and that whilst it lasts, it will be a hell of a ride. I for one will be waiting with my tinted glass for the H-Bomb to detonate again! As a final note on this fight, let's give credit for both men involved in this fight happening. Whilst Frank Warren may have seen this as an opportunity for his man to pick up the WBA and WBC belts against a weight drained opponent, Enzo could have easily hung around until Haye had moved on, and attempted to sweep up the vacant belts without facing off against him, something that he will have to do now in order to prove himself the second in line to the throne Haye will soon abdicate as he seeks greater empires to rule over. Enzo will have to rebuild his stature in the cruiserweight division, but there is no shame at all in losing to David Haye. None. I will watch his resumed career with every bit as much interest, perhaps more, than I did before. Haye though deserves the most credit; and his manager/trainer Adam Booth, who took an educated gamble on Haye being able to come into the fight fresh, hydrated and in optimum condition to prove once and for all, that Haye was the man in the division. It was a fantastic bit of chicanery on their part, to convince Maccarinelli and Warren that Haye was reluctantly dragging his body down to 200 pounds for the payday offered by Warren. As Steve Bunce insinuated during the Setanta broadcast, it seems that they pulled off a masterstroke, but nevertheless, Haye could easily have left the cruiserweight division behind, and Maccaranlli in his rear view mirror as he and booth cantered off to plant their flag, in the Wild West that is the current heavyweight division. I thought that the Setanta coverage of the event was excellent, with the selections of pundits and commentators having a nice balance between the hyperbole and excitability of the likes of Steve Bunce, and the more sombre tones of Claude Abrams for instance, satisfying the casual punter and the more hardened fan alike. I'd definitely like to see this little and large act again. It was a well packaged well attended event, and hopefully Setanta's viewing figures will bolster its acquisitions of future fights, as it attempts to live up to it's title as ‘The new home of boxing.' Hopefully this fight will have pricked Ricky Hatton and his camp, and they will see that a fight between Hatton and Witter could and should happen. More on this another time. DOME-TASTIC! I sadly wasn't at this fight, but I was glad to see that the Dome has finally found it's feet as a sporting venue par excellence. I've been excited about the dome as a potential fight arena since as far back as 2004, when the government's proposals for the updating of the antiquated gambling legislation in this country, first cited it as a potential site of one of the first Vegas-style super casinos in the country, something which sadly, never came to fruition; dour Presbyterian sensibilities in the shape of Gordon brown driving the nail of sobriety into that idea last year for the foreseeable future. That notwithstanding despite reports of urine overflowing toilets and expensive facilities, boxing in the capital has a modern purpose-built arena with modern facilities to put on high profile fights. If they can sort out the niggling transport issues, which make getting home from the Greenwich peninsula a turgid task at the best of times, then we could finally see a venue to challenge the current virtual stranglehold that Las Vegas has on major world title fights. It's just a shame that the government didn't have the sense to allow the building of the supercasino, which might have seen enough money rolling around to provide some sort of shuttle back to central London for the thousands of punters making their way home rather than the extra boats laid on ferrying people backwards and forwards to Waterloo. THRILLING BUT RISKY FOR MITCHELL Is it just me, or did Kevin Mitchell remind anyone else of ‘Ireland's John Duddy' on the undercard fight against Carl Johanneson, a British title fight which was absolutely thrilling. After dominating the first two rounds, Duddy found himself in a tooth and nail battle with gritty Johansson, and only his terrific conditioning and seemingly granite chin kept him in the fight. Whilst Johanneson is levels above Duddy's opponent Walid Smichet, the parallels were pretty evident as Mitchell after a bright start walked into countless left hooks and straight rights for about four rounds. It was tremendously exciting to watch, of that there is no doubt, and the dramatic unravelling of Carl Johanneson as he ran out of will and stamina, after seemingly having Mitchell going, his heart seemingly broken as wave after wave of his punches crashed against Mitchell's chin to no avail, only added to this. However, Mitchell is going to have to seriously reign in his tendency to go hell for leather when tagged by a serious punch, if he wants to progress beyond domestic level. There are more measured performers than Johanneson who will exploit this weakness with ruthless effect at the upper echelons of the division. Even at European level, I shudder to think what previous European champion, Leva Kirakosyan who twice destroyed Carl, would do to Mitchell presented with openings like the ones he gave Johanneson on the night. How Mitchell made it through that hellacious sixth round without being dropped is beyond me. He's a tough, tough man. In fairness to Mitchell, he recognised in his post fight interview that he had ‘a lot to learn' but those tendencies to get involved with an opponent when hurt can be very hard to lever away from a fighter. For John Duddy, it is probably too late, but at 23 Mitchell can still hopefully go back to the drawing board with the realisation that sometimes boxing clever is the answer rather than all out aggression, as it was this which eventually allowed him to triumph. All in all, it was an excellent night for British boxing, and with HBO providing coverage in America, it's another shot in the arm for a boxing scene which it is hard to believe was being described as ailing in many quarters less than a year ago.

Go back Comment on this article | Send to a friend | Print

There are no comments. Click here to be the first who comment on this article.