DAVID HAYE W12 (maj.) NIKOLAI VALUEV

Memo to self: for the umpteenth time, take boxers’ pre-fight comments with a grain of salt.

David Haye talked so much about going for the knockout he had me believing it. Instead, Haye did what logic dictated he should do, which was to move this way and that, hit and get out, and not give Nikolai Valuev a chance to unload on him in Saturday’s heavyweight title fight in Germany.

This was the blueprint that been laid down by Evander Holyfield and Ruslan Chagaev, and Haye followed it perfectly.

It wasn't spectacular, but it was undeniably an intelligent, clever tactical fight by the British heavyweight against an opponent who towered over him by nine inches and outweighed him by about 100 pounds.

Watching the fight, I wondered if Haye might not be boxing a bit too cautiously, a concern voiced by Jim Watt in the Sky commentary. As it turned out, Haye and his trainer and longtime friend Adam Booth gauged things perfectly.

Judging by the way that Haye wobbled Valuev with a left hook in the last round, maybe he could indeed have toppled the Russian giant had he gone after him the way he led us to believe he would. There would have been a risk, though, that Haye could have got caught and hurt by one of Valuev’s ponderous, downward-travelling right hands, or maybe an uppercut. I believe that Adam Booth’s advice to Haye was on the lines of: “Don’t give this guy a chance to win.” Even when Haye was cruising through the early rounds, Booth cautioned him: “Don’t get drunk on the success you're having.”

It was a finely judged performance by Haye, if not the glorious triumph that some of the British press were proclaiming it to be. Haye opened as the solid betting favourite at almost 3-1 on, for goodness’ sake (although a surprising late rush of money on Valuev narrowed the odds). It wasn’t like Randolph Turpin outpointing the magnificent Sugar Ray Robinson or Lloyd Honeyghan beating up Donald Curry in Atlantic City, or Ken Buchanan outscoring Ismael Laguna in the heat of Puerto Rico, or John H. Stracey climbing off the canvas to overwhelm Jose Napoles in Mexico City. Those were great British upset victories. As my colleague Steve Bunce would say: “Let’s get it right.”

Haye got the win, though, and he is now the WBA heavyweight champion. He did it away from home, too, as he did when stopping Jean-Marc Mormeck in France to become cruiserweight champion. However, it wasn’t as if he beat the local favourite in Valuev. The huge Russian has been booed by German crowds in the past (as when he got a clear but unimpressive win over Jean-Francois Bergeron). This fight was on a level playing field, with Jim Watt noting before the off that the ring was “massive” — which favoured the sort of evasive style that Haye was about to employ.

It soon became clear that Haye was not going to be engaging the lumbering hulk that moved steadily forward like a slow train heading down a track. Haye’s tactics — to keep out of Valuev’s way, shoot some jabs into the champion’s massive midriff and hit him with hard, quick punches, maybe two or three at a time, once or twice in each round — were keeping him ahead. Although Valuev shook his head to signify “nothing”, the fact is that these were eye-catching punches from Haye. In rounds where neither man had been doing much of anything, Haye’s occasional explosions were enough to sway the judges his way.

As I saw it, Haye won almost all the early rounds, and Valuev could never quite creep into the fight to the extent that he could get his nose in front.

It did seem like a very close fight, though. Valuev was prodding out the long left hand but many them were falling short or being slipped by the athletic Londoner.

Some watchers might have taken the view that if Valuev hadn’t been plodding forward then there wouldn’t have been a fight (yes, OK, such as it was). So, the scoring of the Spanish judge, 114-114, wasn’t a surprise. The wide scores of the U.S. and Italian judges — each marking it 116-112 in Haye’s favour — did surprise me, but when Haye finished strongly I was in no doubt that he would get the verdict, with 115-113 looking about right.

Now, some will say that Andre Dirrell fought a similar type of fight against Carl Froch and didn’t get the decision. There were some differences. Froch, for me, always had the look of a dangerous aggressor; Valuev was like a man fumbling to put a key in a lock on a dark night. Dirrell hurt his cause on the scorecards by grabbing, going down without being hit and complaining to the referee; Haye gave the impression that he was boxing exactly the fight he wanted to box.

My pal and editor at Boxing Monthly, Glyn Leach, told me on Sunday morning that he watched the fight twice and each time he came up with a draw — he couldn’t split them. Jim Watt had Valuev winning by two points on the Sky PPV commentary and his ringside colleague Ian Darke saw it one point in favour of Haye. I’m told that on the North American PPV commentary, Bob Sheridan (watching on a monitor Stateside) had it a draw. Yet Kevin Mitchell of The Guardian, an experienced boxing observer, who was at ringside, gave Haye 11 of the 12 rounds with one even. (No doubt Adam Booth would say that Kevin was the only one present who knew what he was looking at.)

Haye apparently hurt his right hand early in the fight, which adds merit to his victory. He is a personable, usually exciting fighter whose win is good for boxing. (London promoter Frank Maloney, who once promoted both Haye and Valuev, told me before the fight that while he leaned a little towards Valuev he would be “cheering like mad” for a Haye victory because of the boost it would give the game in Britain.)

Valuev’s body language at the end of the fight told you that he didn’t expect to get the decision while Haye’s manner was of a boxer who knows he did enough.

Many will consider the decision debatable but I don’t think it can be called controversial. Haye was smart, slick, disciplined and determined. He didn’t deliver the devastating type of win he had predicted, but his big left hook in the final round provided a moment of drama that people will remember. Haye did the job that he set out to do, and he got the win — and, when all is said and done, you can’t knock success.