David Haye wins WBA heavyweight title

David Haye landed the WBA heavyweight title with victory over Nikolai Valuev and then set his sights on the Klitschko brothers as part of his quest to dominate the division.
From London scored the 29 year old a majority decision verdict after taking the 2.13m tall, 143kg Russian giant the full twelve round distance, using his superior speed to stay away from his opponent's close range punches.
Haye must now face John Ruiz of the United States in a mandatory defence, but says he will then seek out either IBF and WBO champion Wladimir Klitscko or his brother Vitali, the WBC champion.
"Anyone who has a belt is in my sights now - definitely the Klitschkos," said Haye, who had secured fights with both Ukrainian brothers last summer only for the match ups to fall through.
"The Klitschkos tried to lock me down in a crazy contract. I am free now to fight who I want to."
Haye revealed he had damaged his right hand early in Saturday's fight and was shocked at how hard Valuev's head was to punch.
"I damaged my right early in the fight, I think it was the second round, he has a very hard head, it was like punching a brick wall," said Haye.
"I have hit heavy bags before in the gym, but I knew I had broken my hand straight away."
Haye, Britain's first heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis's retirement in 2003, said it was an incredible feeling to have won.
"It's a bit surreal to be honest. When you strive for something your whole life, what do you do?" he said.
"Some people said I was crazy to fight this guy, but I proved the Hayemaker can turn it on when he wants to.
"I think I can clean up in this division and there is plenty more to come."
Having branded Valuev "a circus freak" before the fight, Haye said he had proved his value as a showman by backing up his brash claims.
"I say what the fight fans want to hear, I talk big and then I produce the goods," he said.
"I said I would make him look silly, I said he wouldn't hit me and that is what I did, I have beaten the biggest and tallest champion of all time."
Haye insisted his speed and athleticism was the key to the shock upset in just his third heavyweight fight as he inflicted only the second defeat of Valuev's career.
"The key was speed," insisted the new world champion. "People don't realise I am very fast, I have powerful punches.
"It was my speed and power. I am an athlete and if I wasn't boxing I would be playing football or rugby.
"Being a good athlete means you can put on good performances like that. My athleticism made the difference."
Valuev, 36, admitted he was shocked by Haye's performance.
"From my point of view, the main thing which went wrong today was the pace," said the Russian.
"It was like a marathon for me and I wasn't prepared to run so much like you would in a world championships."
Haye said he sees few problems against Ruiz, a former WBA champion.
"I don't think he is the most entertaining. He has won the world title before and you don't do that by being a bad fighter," said Haye.
"I will be way too fast, I will knock him out."

David Haye boxer has sleeping problems ahead of Valuev clash

David Haye British challenger on Tuesday admitted having a few sleeping problems ahead of his showdown with WBA heavyweight champion Nikolai Valuev here on Saturday night.
Valuev, 36, takes on Haye at the Nuremberg Arena with former cruiserweight Haye eager to claim his first world title and the Londoner has made a habit of taunting the 2.13m tall Russian in the build-up.
But Haye was quick to change hotels after arriving in the Bavarian city on Monday insisting he could not sleep in his original bed.
"When I reached German soil, I was guided towards a disgusting hotel, with a dingy room," the former cruiserweight wrote on his blog.
"After a quick call or two, we managed to depart the rancid lair with our legs and arms still intact.
"We really ended up at a lovely five star hotel, though we had to pay for the five star privilege.
"Still, if it saves us from the guaranteed Black Death of the first place, it will be well worth the price."
Valuev is looking to pick up his 51st professional win with 34 knock outs and just one defeat, to Ruslan Chagaev in April 2007, on his record and Haye says he will not be fazed by the minor set-back.
"These are the sort of mind games and tactics you have to put up with when fighting abroad," he said.
"They rattle some fighters, while others refuse to ever box on foreign territory.
"The foreign promoters are always looking to give their guy any possible advantage and they'll look to screw you around left, right and centre if they think it's going to unsettle you."
Haye, 29, is 23cms shorter and nearly 40 kgs lighter than Valuev in what is a true David versus Goliath contest, but the Russian does not care if the Brit is losing sleep worrying about facing him.
"I don't care whether he can sleep or not," said Valuev.
"And I don't really care about what hotel he stays in.
"I am really looking forward to Saturday night when I will meet him in the ring and defend my title.
"I cannot wait to land a few heavy blows on him."
On Tuesday, Valuev and Haye held open workout sessions at a shopping precinct in Nuremberg.
Valuev did some light stretching and shadow boxing before Haye entered the ring with his coach having turned his pads into a special mask.
"That is Valuev," said Haye.
"This is how we have prepared for him."

'I'm not looking forward to all that matted body hair and sweat', David Haye

David Haye has wanted to become world heavyweight boxing champion since he was seven years old, living in an 18th floor council flat in Bermondsey, south east London. A week tomorrow in Nuremberg, south-east Germany, he finally gets a shot at a version of the title. Standing squarely between the 29 year old and the realisation of his long cherished ambition, however, will be the WBA champion, Russian giant Nikolai Valuev, 7ft 2in and 23st of solid, hairy and, according to Haye, not particularly sweet-smelling flesh.
I last interviewed Haye six months ago, when he was due to fight the 6ft 7in Ukrainian Wladimir Klitschko, the IBF, WBO and IBO champion. He had just caused a stir by wearing a T-shirt depicting him triumphantly holding up the severed heads of Wladimir and Wladimir's brother Vitali, the WBC champ. The fight didn't happen because "The Hayemaker" strained his back, so this time, looking anew for headline fodder, he has loudly raised the issue of Valuev's body odour. "All that matted hair and sweat," he says, disdainfully. "People who've fought him before have noticed it, so I'm not looking forward to that too much." He is making rather a habit of offending big blokes from the former Soviet Union.
Haye, a comparatively petit fellow of 6ft 3in and 16st, who was undisputed world cruiserweight champion until he stepped up to heavyweight, has also described Valuev as a "monster" and a "freak show" of a human being. But of course there is method in his manners. "I do and say whatever I can to get under their skin," he says. "The more angry they are on the night, the less they think about their technique." It was a tactic similarly adopted by one of his heroes, Muhammad Ali. Joe Frazier and George Foreman were properly riled by Ali's often boorish taunts and insults which, in the Thriller in Manila and the Rumble in the Jungle, he duly backed up with his fists. Boorishness is all very well, but you have to win. What if Haye fails to win?
"It's not an option," he says. "I know that if I bob when I should weave, duck when I should dive, he'll take me out, so it needs to be a punch-perfect performance. But I know what it's like to lose, and I've vowed never to lose again. I can't allow anything I do to result in a loss. If necessary I'll fight like a dog to beat this guy."
Haye leans forward in his chair, in the Riverside Plaza, a smart London hotel close to his Vauxhall gym, and drops his voice slightly, as if to emphasise the significance of what he is saying.
"There are different ways to victory," he adds, "and if one strategy doesn't work then it will be a case of, 'What's the next strategy?' He's very effective at what he does. He's lost one in 52, he's beat some respected fighters, and they all said he was better than they expected. There are certain people you can't knock out with one shot and he's one of them, but everybody's got a weak point. I know it's not his head, but I'll find it. I will hit him more often than he's ever been hit before. I will work his body, his arms, his neck, anything available. And I will make him look stupid by missing a lot. I will dishearten him. Don't forget he's got no amateur pedigree to feed off. I learnt my craft as an international amateur, and that will help me beat him."
It is a stirring statement of intent, and to be sure, there's much more to heavyweight boxing than size and strength, but all the same, Valuev will enjoy a massive 10-inch superiority in reach. The fight is cutely billed as David v Goliath, but Haye's biblical namesake had a slingshot. And if Valuev does land one of his thunderous right hands, will the Haye chin stand up to it? That is the big question mark the Londoner carries into the ring. He has lost only once in 23 fights, and all but one of those 22 wins have been knockouts. Nobody doubts his own punching power. But can he take a punch?
"I think I can. I was knocked down a few times in the cruiserweight division, but always by someone smaller. You see it in boxing time and again. Manny Pacquiao got knocked out at flyweight, but Ricky Hatton couldn't hurt him [at light welterweight]. The shots that hurt you are the shots you don't see, and the lighter the other guy the faster his shots are. When you see it coming you brace it, block it, ride it, parry it, and those options are increased against heavyweights."
Capitalising on an opponent's weight is a strategy recommended by his father Deron, a panel beater by trade but also a martial arts instructor. And Deron's guidance extended to other, more important aspects of life. "He was the best kind of male role model," says Haye. "He was clean-living, always came straight home after work, very athletic. A lot of kids follow what their old man does, and with him it was all about health and fitness. There were people in my class at school who ended up banged up, shot, killed even. My parents led me away from that side of things, and so did boxing. I wasn't smoking weed or drinking, because it would have hurt my boxing."
He was only two or three, he adds, when his father recognised a precocious ability to throw a punch. "My dad used to say to his pals, 'Let my son punch your hand', and they couldn't believe my power. I've always had a freakish gift of being able to whack things." And people, of course, which came in handy when he was 11 and in his first year at secondary school. "The hardest kid in the school was this lad called Danny Robinson, a few years older than me. He tried to give me some grief and I bashed him up. Then he came over to me in the football cage later that same day, with a couple of his mates, and I did him again." A chuckle. "I saw him again a few years ago and we had a laugh about it."
Still, decking Danny Robinson in the football cage is one thing, decking Nikolai Valuev in the Nuremberg Arena quite another. How carefully has he studied footage of Valuev's 52 fights? "I've looked at some of them, of course. But it's a mistake, and one I've made in the past, to try to figure a fighter out by watching someone else fight him. It's like watching a football team. They do different things when they play your team. I've learnt a lot from watching tapes of Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, Floyd Mayweather, and especially Roy Jones Jnr in his prime. He's the biggest inspiration to me, him and Lennox Lewis. Everyone has his own style, but nobody ever fights the same fight twice and Roy Jones was a master at those subtle adjustments, the pivoting of the feet, the head movement..."
As he says, though, that was Jones in his prime. At 40 the once great Floridian is still scrapping on, a shadow of his former self, and Haye abhors the spectacle of a boxer undermining his own legacy. "He could have retired as one of the all-time greats. He would have been in my top three of all time, no question. He went up to heavyweight and beat John Ruiz convincingly, but then he dropped back down to light heavyweight, got knocked out, Calzaghe beat him, and I just don't understand the motivation for carrying on. You've secured your legacy, you've got enough dough, why carry on?"
It is the perplexing, perennial boxing question, and Haye is determined that nobody will ever ask it of him. He says it was his intention even as a boy not to fight beyond the age of 30, and before he turns 31 in October 2011, he will honour his pledge to himself by quitting, as undefeated world heavyweight champion with two or three successful defences to his name, to be followed by a glittering career as a promoter if all goes perfectly to plan. On the other hand, no sport makes a mockery of plans quite like boxing does, and Haye is bright enough to know it, even if he won't admit it.
Can he honestly not envisage, eight or nine months from now, fancying one more pay day? "No," he says flatly. "I'm not a big spender, and anyway, how much money can one person spend? I've got a few cars. There's nothing I want to buy that I haven't got already."
I noticed one of his cars, a sporty Mercedes with a personalised number plate, when I arrived at the Riverside Plaza. In truth, it was hard not to notice, for it was parked somewhat ostentatiously across the entrance. And therein, perhaps, lies the contradictory essence of David Haye. He likes the expensive trappings of sporting success, and likes to show them off, but he doesn't crave any more of them and lives fairly modestly, in Brixton. He wants nothing more than to be heavyweight champion of the world, but he's happy for his reign to be brief. He is a smart, engaging, witty charmer, who can also descend to the level of the playground, as with his "you're ugly, you stink" insults. And he is keenly aware of his own eloquence, yet content in his own company.
This time next week, he tells me, solitude will be key to his preparation. "I try not to talk to many people before a fight because everyone wants to give you an opinion," he says. "I'll send and receive a few texts, but you get silly advice, like 'use your jab'. Oh yeah, I wasn't going to do that, thanks for telling me. Then I'll wake up on the day a bit earlier than usual, because of the adrenalin, and I'll think immediately, 'I'm going to have a tear-up tonight'. It's a strange feeling, because all those niggles and aches you've had, they all seem to disappear on the day. And then I'll just stay as relaxed as possible. I'll listen to Al Green, Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye, that sort of thing, and use as little mental and physical energy as possible. I'll save all the fast-twitch stuff for the last hour or two."
And what does he expect to dream about the night before the fight? What, indeed, did he dream about last night? "I dreamt about this big, massive, hairy body on the floor, and me standing over it." Funny, I had a feeling he might say that.

My fear for David Haye, Lennox Lewis

Britain's wonderest heavyweight Lennox Lewis has warned David Haye Russian giant Nikolai Valuev could overpower him with his height, reach and weight.
Haye fights Valuev, 7ft 2ins tall and 22st, for the WBA heavyweight title in Nuremburg on November 7. And Lewis is concerned the Brit will have too many physical disadvantages.
"I don't like to look heavyweights giving away too much and David is giving away everything against Valuev," said Lewis. "David is fast and brave, but he will be nearly a foot shorter and about 100 pounds lighter and that is a massive amount.
"There are ways to beat the big men of the sport and Evander Holyfield came close last year against Valuev.
"I told Evander that I thought that he won on the night, but it is hard to win in Germany."
Haye is putting the final touches to his secret preparation for his overdue showdown with Valuev, and he welcomed the advice from his hero Lennox.
Haye said: "I know exactly where Lennox is coming from and I just have to make sure that I get it right on the night." Lewis also revealed that he had turned down several offers to end his six year retirement and return to the ring for a fight against either Valuev or Vitali Klitschko.
"There was an offer or two but the money was not enough and I'm happy with my life at the moment," said Lewis.
"Vitali's wife has asked me dozens of times to give him a re-match, but I'm friends with him now.
"I will be watching when David gets in the ring and hoping that he can follow me and win the world heavyweight title, but it is going to be a hard night."

'another idiot', Champion Valuev brands Haye

World Boxing Association (WBA) heavyweight champion Nikolai Valuev has shrugged off David Haye's latest promotional stunt and dismissed the Briton as just "another idiot".

Outspoken Haye, 29, took part in a farcical press conference last week which saw a man turn up dressed in a Halloween outfit seeming pretending to be Valuev.
After goading rival world heavyweight champions Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko earlier this year with a graphic t-shirt depicting one of the brothers' severed head, Haye has attempted to wind the Russian giant up by constantly mocking his size and personal hygiene.
Valuev, however, remains distinctly unimpressed and -- ahead of their clash in Nuremberg, Germany on November 7 -- he told reporters: "I don't really care about what he says or does.

"I cannot take him seriously. When I first heard about the t-shirts where he chopped the Klitschkos heads, I thought 'Oh my God, another idiot in our world'.
"He can say whatever he likes -- it will not get him my title."
Valuev -- who has never been floored, let alone knocked out -- added: "Everything has been going very well thus far. I will be in perfect shape on November 7.
"Let's just see what Haye has to say after our meeting in the ring, I doubt it will be much."

David Haye: I need to change

David Haye says he will have to adapt his style in order to conquer WBA heavyweight champion Nicolai Valuev on November 7.
The former unchallenged cruiserweight champion has always looked easy to hit, with low hands and a jutting chin, although a 21-1 record with 20 stoppage wins suggests otherwise.
However, against 7ft 2in Valuev the Brit recognises the need to be wary of getting caught by the Russian, who will be keen to make his massive physical superiority count.
"Come out there i expect there and actually try to assert his size on me, lean on me and use his very effective jab, which he's been working on a lot, and that's become a very effective tool for him," he said.
"So I expect him to come out there using those ramrod jabs, soften me up and throwing his trademark right upper cut and get me out of there.
"I'm expecting the best Nicolai Valuev to turn up and I've got a solution to anything he throws at me.

David Haye's T-shirt stunt puts him on Nikolai Valuev's radar

Haye, who challenges Valuev, at 7ft and 23 stone the tallest, heaviest heavyweight champion in history, for the World Boxing Association crown on Nov 7 in Nuremberg, had been due to face firstly Wladimir, and then Vitali Klitschko, both holders of world titles with other sanctioning bodies. Haye came to Valuev's attention when he came to a press conference with Wladimir wearing the T-shirt.
"I remember it, and I thought here we go, another idiot in boxing," said Valuev yesterday. "I don't care what he says about me. Mind games don't interest me. I want David Haye to do his talking in the ring. I am expecting a tough fight."

Valuev, who also fought in London several times, under management of British promoter Frank Maloney, said he had "fallen in love with the beauty of London, its old, historical buildings".
He added: "I could lose myself in London. In fact, when I was fighting in Battersea one night, I was so busy taking in the sights, I nearly missed my fight. I had a phone call saying 'Where are you? You are due to fight in a couple of hours ' I was sightseeing. But I nearly missed my fight."