Klitcko Haye

This commentary was a tad back logged due to technical problems, but if any one still even cares about this fight here's my oppinion!

Over past weekend I was watching an upsetting matchup between David Haye and Wladamir Klitchko that resulted as many anticipated but few hoped.  While commentators and spectators were swift to judge this fight in typical fashion as nothing more than a matchup of talking the talk verses walking the walk, I noticed something that a lot of people don’t like to discuss but has lingered in my mind throughout the Klitchko Brother’s reign of the Heavyweight division. The sad fact is that Wladimir uses his size in a way that most untalented heavyweights do; when a smaller opponent gets close to him he clinches and leans. During his fight with Haye, Wladimir literally pushed Haye to the canvas on several occasions. Now obviously Haye let himself fall, but before we condemn him to being a “flopper” perhaps he was simply using his smaller stature to his advantage.

When Lennox Lewis fought Mike Tyson the same clinch and lean tactics were imposed to nullify Tyson into an 8^th round K.O. Why is this method so commonly used? Because it wears on the smaller fighter’s legs; essentially when Wladamir leans on his opponent, the smaller fighter is forced to squat almost all 240 some pounds of Klitchko off of them. This over the course of twelve rounds drains the opponent’s endurance thus leading to a K.O. within the later rounds. Now this may be fine to most people and it is perfectly legal within the confines of the sport of boxing. This tactic however is nothing more than a big man using his weight to tip a sanctioned fight further in his favor. And so if a bigger fighter is not judged for using his size against his opponent, why should a smaller fighter be criticized for not playing the big man’s game of carrying his weight?

Now obviously I, like most boxing fans hope that taking a knee anytime someone is leaned on does not become commonplace in the sport. However at the same time I don’t think that heavyweights should open a fight holding on to each other; they have training camps for a reason, my guess would be so that you have some stamina and you don’t need to grab someone in the first round.   

Saturday nights fight was in many people’s eyes the same old story of the modern Heavyweight division. However in my opinion it has only seemed to reinforce an idea that the only reason the Klitchko brothers dominate is because they leave audiences and subpar opponents awe struck based on sheer size and the way they throw it around.