Haye - Valuev Result is a Victory for Boxing

Last night British boxer David Haye beat 7 foot  Russian Nikolay Valuev to claim the WBA Heavyweight title, in a fight that was marketed as "David versus Goliath". The fight itself was fascinating, Haye's victory the result of a perfectly executed fight plan - though deliberately tweaked to accommodate a broken hand sustained early in the fight (from the Russian's big hard head!

That plan was, in essence, to not get hit and get enough hits in himself to give himself a chance of winning. He used his superior speed and technique - as one might expect of a man giving up around 100lbs (over 40 kilos - apparently the diffence in weight between a flyweight and a heavyweight!) and 8 inches (20cm) in reach to his opponent.

Haye exposed Valuev for what he said he is - a lumbering giant that was champion only due to his size. There's nothing wrong with that in itself - you have to use what you have and Valuev has height and weight. But he doesn't have a lot of mobility and last night at least didn't show a great deal of boxing skill. Time after time he threw fresh air punches, while Haye got the occasional punch in on him. Neither did any real damage to the other until the last round when Haye had Valuez really wobbling.

What I found really fascinating though was listening to the Sky TV commentators. Their analysis was that Haye was probably not doing enough to win the fight on points. Even though he hit the Russian more times than the Russian hit him, the fact that he spent a lot of time going backwards meant that he might not be rewarded by the judges. So, without being an expert in the rules of boxing, there's not only an objective 'score' in boxing but a level of subjective interpretation too. Hmm. In the end, Haye did get a clear decision, but there seemed the real prospect, right until the scores were announced, that he might not.

In sport, however, there always has to be room for one opponent to use their strengths or nullify an opponent's. In football, the lower league team has to try to put the shackles on the superstar attackers and hope for a counter attack. On the track, if one runner follows another for the whole of a 10k and attacks on the last corner no-one can take away their gold medal - right? So why shouldn't Haye have been allowed to execute a game plan - the only game plan - that would work against Valuev? To say that he should rush headlong into a hiding is naive in the extreme.

Luckily, Haye wasn't penalised for executing the game plan. Oh - but I said at the beginning that he had to tweak it early on when he broke his right hand. So he had to pick his opportunities more carefully. He had a plan, he adapted it, then he stuck to the revised plan. That's a great lesson for us all that we have to balance the discipline to follow the plan with the flexibility to make the changes required.

So you can see why I think that the Haye victory was a victory for Boxing. I don't believe for a moment that Valuev didn't deserve to be champion while he was, but Haye certainly deserved his victory, a victory build on boxing skills, athleticism and tactical discipline. Not just size.

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Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com