The Way I See It 11.04.09: An Important Title Fight

Posted by Joe Roche on 11.04.2009

This week we're talking about an important title fight that will happen this weekend, and it's not the one you're thinking about.

It has been billed as "David vs. Goliath" although the biblical ramifications associated with the name seem a bit out of place for this particular battle of the heavyweights. On Saturday in Germany WBA heavyweight champion Nicolai Valuev will defend his crown against former cruiserweight kingpin David "Hayemaker" Haye. While the eyes of most boxing fans (including mine) will be turned to the highly anticipated light heavyweight rematch between "Bad" Chad Dawson and Glen Johnson it's amazing just how little attention is being given to a world heavyweight championship fight.



The Way I See It: There are a few reasons why people seem to be tuning out the "David vs. Goliath" clash in Nuremburg on Saturday.

1. Nicolai Valuev: When you think of all the character traits that you'd want in a heavyweight champion – Valuev possesses none of them. I will preface this section with the note that simply not speaking English does not necessarily mean you can't be a successful world champion. However, when a non-English speaking champion combines that with a serious lack of charisma, seemingly no personality, a less then appealing physical appearance and a plodding, slow, uninteresting fight style then you have the poo-poo platter of death for heavyweight boxing. Valuev is known as many things but none of them are particularly good. Being the tallest heavyweight champion of all time, or the hairiest, or the least deserving to still hold his belt aren't necessarily the marks of someone who the division will thrive under. The fact that there is a legitimate argument that Valuev has lost at least three different times when defending his belt (both Ruiz fights and the Holyfield fight) it's understandable that fans don't line up to watch the next Valuev fight – which brings me to my next point.

2. Germany + Valuev = No Buys John Ruiz famously said that he could've knocked Valuev out in either of their encounters and the fight still would've been scored a draw. In the United States, Texas has earned its reputation as the shadiest place to fight in the country, but Germany makes Texas look like the most even handed place on the map. It is very difficult for fans to put down hard earned cash, or even care about a fight that they assume is going to be rigged regardless of the outcome. I spoke with someone from the Ruiz camp this past weekend who gave me his prediction of the fight – "If Haye can get inside, his speed is going to be too much for Valuev, but unless he has power behind his punches and can knock Valuev down there is no way he wins a decision in Germany." That's the general consensus around boxing circles, and in the fans minds so why in the world would anyone pay to see this fight? The problem with Valuev is two fold, the first being that nobody will buy a ticket to see him fight in the United States, or really anywhere other then his comfort zone, so there is no real chance of him fighting someone on neutral soil, and secondly there are no heavyweights that draw a crowd in the U.S. that can fight Valuev so any heavyweight title fight sanctioned by the WBA is going to have to take place on the "Russian Giant's" terms, which ultimately leads to questionable decisions and apathy in the mind of fans.

3. David Haye: If Valuev comes off as stiff, ugly and sans personality then David Haye comes off as the least likeable man in boxing. I have no idea how Haye is regarded in the UK, although I do know that he promised a stadium for his fight with Wladimir Klitschko and couldn't deliver a high school gymnasium so I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that he falls well below the Joe Calzaghe line. But his popularity in his home country aside there is generally nothing to like about David Haye (outside the ring). He talks a great game, he carried around severed heads of the Klitschko's, wore t-shirts that bordered on highly offensive to press conferences and generally shouted his way into a fight with Wladimir – which he mysteriously dropped out of due to an injury that nobody can agree happened, and if it did happen nobody can seem to point out what the injury actually was. After the Wladimir fight fell apart Haye went on the offensive against big brother Vitali – doing just about the same song and dance with "Dr. Ironfist" before once again bowing out of the fight under nefarious circumstances. Haye did not make himself any fans with his approach to the Klitschko's and how he handled the situation, not to mention the fact that many fans still question whether or not one victory over a middle of the road heavyweight earns you the right to talk yourself into three separate world championship fights.

4. John Ruiz: I need to preface everything I write about "The Quietman" with the caveat that I like John Ruiz. I think that the style he used in his last few fights has been so horrendous that the criticism he's received have been warranted. However, I also think that he put in a lot of time recently to change his approach and I hope that things turn around for him. I also think he's a very nice guy – but I can understand why the prospect of him having another heavyweight championship fight seems crazy to some people. Ruiz is the WBA's "mandatory challenger" to the winner of Valuev/Haye. He earned that distinction by being the mandatory challenger to the winner of Valuev/Holyfield, an honor that was bestowed upon him by I believe losing to Valuev in August of 2008. I realize that's convoluted and as much as people criticize Ruiz for the ass-backwards way that he keeps becoming a mandatory challenger for the WBA belt – blame the WBA, not the fighter. So Ruiz will fight Adnan Serin on the undercard Nov. 7th and then (assuming he wins) face the winner of Valuev-Haye. The prospect of Ruiz being in another championship match makes this fight seem even less appealing because when you don't even want to see the fight after this one – what makes one want to see this fight?



So heading into this Saturday you've got a black hole as world champion, taking on an immensely unlikeable challenger in a country rife with corruption with a fighter waiting in the wings that nobody wants to see fight. Sounds like the perfect recipe for a fight that I'm going to tell you to care about right?

Wait what?

That's right folks – I think you should all care about the Valuev-Haye fight this Saturday and it's really simple, this is the WBA world heavyweight championship we're talking about. I know this is hard for some people to fathom but the WBA is the oldest sanctioning body in the United States, beginning as the NBA and changing to the WBA around 1962 so that it could be recognized globally. In case you can't follow along that means lineage wise, the belt that Nicolai Valuev now holds is the same title that Joe Louis, Jack Dempsey, Gene Tunney, Muhammad Ali and every other important heavyweight in the history of boxing has held – wrap your brain around that fact for a second.

Now the reason you should care about the Haye-Valuev fight is that we as boxing fans really need David Haye to win this fight. Whenever you see or hear anything about Valuev it's always in the context of him being put across as a side show attraction. He's the tallest heavyweight champion of all time (7'2") and the largest (325 pounds) but I'm not sure there has ever been someone outside of Valuev's immediately family who has enjoyed his fights. Boxing has two great heavyweight champions that will never face one another, and don't really seem beatable at this time. With Valuev holding the WBA strap under nefarious (for lack of a better term) terms the heavyweight division is at a standstill.

Maybe the thought of David Haye and John Ruiz fighting for the WBA title doesn't thrill you – but isn't it a better fight then Ruiz-Valuev III? What about a potential Tomasz Adamek-David Haye fight, or Haye-Arreola? Honestly I can think of a handful of quality heavyweight fights featuring any heavyweight not named Valuev, but the only chance we have of ever seeing them happen is if Haye somehow manages to upset the champion in his backyard. David Haye may be unlikeable, he may be overly confident and outspoken but he is the last best chance that the heavyweight division has of making some inroads in this country. The Klitschko's dominate the heavyweight division, they are unbeatable and they will not fight one another. Valuev has his belt, the most prestigious belt that the heavyweight division has to offer on lockdown and he's only going to defend it in places where he can't lose – so that leaves David Haye who could travel with the belt, put it on the line against top competition and have entertaining heavyweight fights. Can you imagine such a world? Where we have difficult to predict heavyweight title fights?

Of course for Haye to beat Valuev in Germany he's going to have to make the fight so lopsided that even the most corrupt judges can't hand the decision to the "Russian Giant." I don't think David Haye has the power to hurt Valuev (I don't think anyone has ever hurt Valuev), and even though I don't like his style I will still be rooting for the upset on Saturday and so should you. Not for David Haye, but for the heavyweight division and boxing in general.

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The Way I See Bullet Points

- The Other Fight: Don't think I forgot about the IBF light heavyweight title fight between "Bad" Chad Dawson and Glen Johnson. It's basically been the only thing on my mind all week as I will be sitting ringside covering the fight and I am pretty excited for what I anticipate will be a very good fight. I don't agree that Johnson got robbed in the first fight, but I think it was a very competitive, very close fight that could go either way again this time around. I also don't think either guy fought a perfect fight the last time out so they both have room to improve which sets the scene for a potential FOTY candidate on Saturday night. I will either be live twittering from the XL Center in Hartford on my own twitter account (@411JRoche) or I will hijack the official 411Boxing twitter account (a href="twitter.com/411boxing">@411Boxing) and tweet live there – so please follow along on twitter this Saturday night.

- There was a lot of talk this week that a "Vazquez-Marquez 4" was in the works. That appears to have been a bit premature as Gary Shaw was not on board with the initial talks and he says that the money numbers are way off. However, there is no denying that the two sides are talking – which means that this fight will most likely get done and I have to say that I may be alone in this boat, but I do not want this fight to happen. At this stage there is no real boxing interest in a fourth fight between the two warriors beyond the sick feeling that we would like to watch two men beat the tar out of each other for our amusement. The three wars they went through took a serious toll on both of their bodies and I don't want to reach the stage where we put these two guys together until they kill one another just to see what will happen.

- Speaking of things I never want to see again, Mike Tyson and Don King were together at Treasure Island for the Perez-Agbeko fight. No, no, no – one million times no.

- Hopefully you caught my coverage of "Fright Night at Mohegan Sun" this past Saturday, a very enjoyable evening all around even if the main event sucked out loud. One of the joys of this job has been to work closely with the Classic Entertainment & Sports Inc. team doing the local shows and they're a great bunch of people. I always have fun at the CES shows even when the fights fall a little flat. What didn't disappoint on Halloween night was "Hammerin'" Hank Lundy – trust me when I say that if you have a chance to see Hank Lundy work you owe yourself to watch him, the man is highly entertaining in and out of the ring.

- One last note from Saturday, there will be a lot of people who ride Joey Spina about his piss poor performance against Lou Del Valle. The problem wasn't in the ring on Saturday it was everything that led up to the fight. Spina sparred with zero lefties heading into the fight. He had a terrible game plan to fight a crafty lefty who he simply could not knock out (nobody can KO Del Valle). I'm not sure a Spina-Del Valle II fight is in the works but I do think that Spina will be better for the draw moving forward, if he lets himself learn a lesson from not being prepared.

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The Way I See The Week Ahead

Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Location: New River, N.C.
TV: ESPN 2
- Jason Litzau (25-2-0, 21 KO's) v. Johnnie Edwards (15-4-1, 8 KO's)

This card gets special mention for two reasons the first is obvious it's Wednesday Night Fights which would be an ideal franchise to revive since I have 700 TV channels and only four of them show anything of substance on Wednesday's. The second reason to watch is that friend of 411Boxing Gato Figueroa will be fighting on this card. Frankie has managed to become a pretty big name in boxing circles due to what he didn't do (namely complete camp with Miguel Cotto) then what he did do – but if you want to see one of the nicer fighters around and support a friend of 411Boxing then tune in on Wednesday night – trust me there is nothing else on.

Friday, November 6, 2009
Location: Las Vegas, NV
TV: PPV
- Joel Casamayor (36-4-1, 22 KO's) v. Jason Davis (11-4, 3 KO's)
- Zab Judah (37-6, 25 KO's) v. Ubaldo Hernandez (22-19-2, 10 KO's)

In good conscience I can not tell you to purchase this pay per view. However can you really put a price tag on the names involved in this event? You've got Joel Casamayor, Zab Judah and Fernando Vargas all involved in this card in some fashion – if this event was happening in 1997 you'd probably have HBO involved. Of course it's happening in 2009 and it comes off as a bit sad. I still maintain that Zab has something left in the tank but he's more concerned with being a personality then a fighter – we shall see on this night (or at least someone who has more disposable income then me will see).

Saturday, November 7, 2009
Location: Atlantic City, NJ
TV: gofightlive.tv
- Mike Jones (17-0, 15 KO's) v. Richard Gutierrez (24-3-1, 14 KO's)

I'm not even sure Mike Jones could sell this pay per view to his immediate family when it'll be going against two world championship fights.

Saturday, November 7, 2009
Location: Nuremburg, Germany
TV: Intergrated Sports PPV (3PM/ET in the US)
- Nicolai Valuev (50-1, 34 KO's) v. David Haye (22-1, 21 KO's)

The title of this article was going to be "The Way I See It: The Most Important Heavyweight Title Fight Ever" but when I ran that past Ramon we agreed that it sounded a bit pretentious. Changing the title of the column doesn't change the fact that as boxing fans we should all desperately be cheering for David Haye to win if for no other reason then it'll open up the most prestigious heavyweight strap for some new and exciting fights.

Saturday, November 7, 2009
Location: Hartford, CT
TV: HBO Championship Boxing (TV PICK OF THE WEEK)
- Chad Dawson (28-0, 17 KO's) v. Glen Johnson (49-12-2, 33 KO's)
- Alfredo Angulo (16-1, 13 KO's) v. Harry Joe Yorgey (22-0-1, 10 KO's)

This show is stacked – if you need a reason to watch Dawson-Johnson II then you're probably not a fight fan. I would love to say that I think Glen will complete the feel good story and win the strap on Saturday night but I don't think he will. It should be a fantastic fight though and I am looking forward to being ringside, tweeting the event and seeing some great fights.