WBA Champion David Haye is the New Ali

Charismatic newly crowned champion David Haye overcame a seven stone disadvantage and a broken hand in round two to beat the massive champion Nikolai Valuev on points. Two judges gave Haye the victory whilst one judge said the contest was a draw. This made Haye the first World Champion since Lennox Lewis in 2003 (if you discount Audley Harrison briefly holding the WBF belt since is considered the weakest of the four versions).

I watched the contest on pay-per-view and personally thought Haye was too negative and can count himself a little lucky to be the victor in the fight. He did a great job of dodging any offence from Valuev but could easily have been penalised on the scorecards for avoiding the action and not engaging. Valuev kept coming forward but was not doing anything against Haye. This may have been the deciding factor. Haye hurt Valuev in the last round and looked close to knocking him down. He certainly came through the fight looking fit and did not slow down throughout the twelve rounds. The judges felt Hayes skill in avoiding the big fighter was enough for the win.

British boxing is in a healthy situation now. We have a number of great prospects coming through in James De Gale, Frankie Gavin and Billy-Jo Saunders along with Amir Khan and Heavyweights like Sam Sexton and Martin Rogan. Even Audley Harrison won prizefighter and despite a few characteristic slow rounds, looked good doing it. The future is bright, and Haye is the standard bearer of them all. Comparisons are being made to the great Mohammed Ali who was also brash and confident as a champion.

Haye will now look to recover from his hand injury and start working his way through the queue of opponents now lined up to face him as champion. His next fight will be against John Ruiz who successfully fought on the undercard of Haye and Valuev thus earning himself a shot at the title. Ruiz is a good fight for Haye. He is not as fast as David and offers a gradual step up in class towards the fighters that Haye really wants to fight in the Klitschko brothers. I believe he will fight Vitali first, and then if successful Vladimir, who looked excellent in his last fight. Haye also has the benefit of being 29, whilst Vitali is 38 and age can catch up with a fighter quickly.

It will certainly be exciting to follow and support David Haye in his next three fights where should he win; he would have to be considered the best Heavyweight boxer in the world at that point.

I questioned whether 1.72 was too short from bwin.com but evidently they knew got it right. There are plenty of boxing betting odds at bwin.com with the next big fight being the Catchweight (145lbs) contest between Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto, in what promises to be another classic. “Packman” is currently favourite at 1.45 with Cotto at odds of 2.70. The draw is 23.00. That fight is on November 15^th.

British fans are looking forward to the Amir Khan fight against New York fighter Dmitriy Salita where Khan is strong favourite at odds of 1.12 to win that fight. Salita is not pushover and can be backed at odds of 5.50 with the draw priced at 34.00. That fight is on December 5^th at the Newcastle Arena. I have tickets to that fight for my first live boxing experience so I cannot wait.

Keep your eyes on all the boxing action this autumn and winter at bwin.com.

By Malcolm Clarke