Bert Sugar's Take on Klitschko vs Haye Fight Strategy

By Chris Robinson

For the past seven years, heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko has gone undefeated, reeling off thirteen consecutive victories and ten stoppages along the way. There is no question that in that stretch it has been the younger Klitschko who has been the most dominant heavyweight on the planet yet the painful reality is that his fights have lacked any real suspense or intrigue.

Maybe all Klitschko needs is a worthy dance partner to fix the problem, all the more reason for us to look with anticipation at his HBO-televised fight today in Hamburg, Germany against brash WBA champion David Haye. It is a make or break fight for many boxing fans, with a result that will either shake up the division with a Haye victory or continue a long run of dominance by the 35-year old champion from the Ukraine.

I reached out to well-known boxing historian and HBO Sports' Bert Sugar to get his take on the fight and he certainly sees potential in the matchup.

"It could be interesting but then again it could be boring," stated Sugar. "It's up to Haye to make the fight. This could be the most interesting and exciting heavyweight championship fight since Tyson and Lennox Lewis."

Haye is unarguably one of the fastest, most athletic heavyweights in the game but there are those who feel that the former cruiserweight champion is trying to climb a mountain too high. Sugar gave his take on Haye's arsenal and pondered the stylistic clash between the two men.

"Well, he's got power," Sugar said of Haye. "We know that. Klitschko has a jab; we know that. What Haye has to do is get inside that jab and force that fight. Klitschko can be hit. [Samuel] Peter knocked him down three times, Corrie Sanders, Lamont Brewster. But you gotta get past that jab, and if he's playing the waiting game and hoping to wear him down he's going to eat a lot of jabs in the meantime. And he can't do that."

You will hard-pressed to find a champion in the sport as outspoken as Haye and his pre-fight theatrics leading up to the fight have been noteworthy. Several questions have arose as to whether Haye has a sense of false bravado and Sugar too believes that the taunting isn't rattling Wladimir too much.

"He's trying to get into Klitschko's head. He seems to have done a little bit of that but I don't think it will make much of a difference. The Kiltschkos are fairly unemotional and they fight that way," Sugar added of Wladimir, who is a nearly 2-1 favorite heading into the fight according to Las Vegas odds.

I finished up by asking how much this fight means to Klitschko's overall standing in the sport and Sugar poked some fun while offering up some real talk.

"Right now he has no legacy outside of being boring. I mean, I was seated at one of his fights and I had to tell the guy in the press section in front of me to quit snoring because he was keeping me awake. He's got to put on an exciting fight that we remember."