Valuev jabs to Haye's midsection.
Round 1
Haye moves side to side as Valuev tries to cut off the ring. Haye with a few ineffective jabs to the body. Valuev pumping the jab, but missing. About a minute in, Haye lands a right hand upstairs. First punch to land for either fighter. More of the same — Haye moving, Valuev following. Haye lands a hard right to the body with about a min left. Haye jumps inside with 30 sec left and throws a two punch combo — landing the left and missing with the right. More of the same — Valuev following Haye around missing with the jab. Haye throws a 1-2 to the head with a few seconds left, but Valuev blocks it. Not much action, but I didn’t see Valuev land a single punch. 10-9 Haye
Round 2
More of the same — Valuev following Haye around for the first min of the round, pumping his jab into the air. Haye doesn’t throw a single punch in the first min. About a minute in he lands a left hook to Valuev’s massive head. First punch landed in the round by either fighter. More of the same. Haye moves, Valuev follows. About a minute and a half in, Haye lands a quick jab to the body. That’s 2 punches for Haye, 0 for Valuev. God, if the whole fight goes down like this it’s going to be painful to watch. At 1:30 left in the round, Haye lands a quick, hooking left jab. A min left and Valuev has yet to land his first punch of the fight. Haye lands a HUGE right hand with about :25 left in the round. The crowd goes wild, but Valuev walks right through it and doesn’t seem phased. Haye landed something like 4 punches in the round, including the big right hand. Valuev landed 0. 10-9 round for Haye. 20-18 Haye
Round 3
A minute in and Valuev has thrown 10-15 punches, but missed every time. Haye seems to be channeling Willie Pep and has only thrown 1 or 2 jabs in return. Valuev finally lands a jab to the body, although it wasn’t particularly clean. He eats a counter left hook to the head for his trouble. 1:25 left and Haye scores with a quick right and left to the head of Valuev, who tries to cover up. Haye jabs to Valuev’s body at :50 left. Right at the end of the round, Valuev lunges in with a 5 punch combo and misses with each one, but gets tagged with a counter right hand. Another Haye round. The highlights between rounds show Haye landing some heavy bombs, but they don’t seem to be having any effect on Valuev. It’s a shutout so far. Obviously not a lot of offense by Haye, but Valuev has thrown about 100 punches through the first 3 rounds and only landed one — a weak jab to the body in round 3. Haye has landed a handful of flush power punches in each of the first 3 rounds and managed to avoid 99% of Valuev’s punches. 30-27 Haye.
Round 4
About 35 sec into the round, Valuev gets Haye in the corner and unleases a 4 punch combination. A big left hook to end the combo goes low and misses Haye’s head, but maybe grazes his chest. The crowd goes wild. More of the usual — Haye moving, Valuev following him around punching at the air. Haye lands a good right hand with about 1:30 left. In a fight with so few punches landed that could actually win the round . . . With about a minute left, Valuev corners Haye and tries to throw a combo, but Haye actually squeezes past and is out of the corner and back in the middle of the ring before Valuev is done throwing his combination. It’s like a cartoon. Haye lands a hooking straight left punch with about 40 sec left and then follows it up with a jab to the body at :35. Valuev chases Haye into a corner and lands a right to the body with 25 sec left. Haye lands another big right hand in the last 10 sec. Painful to watch, but easy to score. Valuev just isn’t landing ANY punches. I’ve counted 2 punches landed in about 120 thrown over 4 rounds. So, he’s connecting at a rate of about 1-2%. Haye isn’t throwing much, but he is landing some big shots when he does throw. The shutout continues. 40-36 Haye
Round 5
More of the same. Valuev throws 10 punches in the first minute and all miss (most are not even close — he’s just pushing out his fists at the air). Haye hasn’t thrown anything in return. 1:30 left and Valuev still hasn’t landed a punch. Neither has Haye. Now Haye lands a jab to the body at 1:20 left. Haye lands a left right at 1:15 left. That’s more than enough to win the round at this point. Valuev finally catches Haye against the ropes and lands a right to the body and a left to the head (which hits Haye’s gloves). I had Haye outlanding him 3-2 or 3-1 in that round. Very, very close round. The only clean, effective punch landed was by Haye, though (at 1:15 left in the round). The highlights show a jab brushing Haye’s face and then Haye landing a left hook, throwing a right that gets blocked and then landing another right to the head. That was pretty much it for the action in the round. 50-45, 5 rounds to 0, for Haye.
Round 6
More of the same. Valuev following Haye around, throwing his jab, but still missing. A minute in and neither fighter has landed a punch in the round. Haye lands a jab to the body. Valuev lands a left hook to the head. Haye comes back with a left hook, right hand combo. Left lands, right is blocked. Haye lands a weak right hook to the body. Valuev corners Haye and throws a 4 punch combo, but can’t catch him. Valuev lands a left jab and a clubbing right to the shoulder with about a min left. Valuev throws a jab, Haye counters with a hook. Haye throws a 1-2 with about :20 left that is mostly blocked. Some action at the end by both fighters, but nothing lands. Very close round and almost impossible to score fairly. Punches landed were about even. Nothing really clean landed by either fighter. It could go either way, but I gave the round to Valuev. He was the one forcing the action. 59-55 (5 rounds to 1) for Haye. Punch stats btwn rounds show Haye outlanding Valuev by a wide margin through the first 6 rounds. They have Valuev landing 15%, though, which is way too high.
Round 7
Valuev lands his first clean punch of the night — a jab that snaps Haye’s head back — about 35 sec into the round. More of the usual — Valuev follows Haye around, throwing but missing. Haye doesn’t do anything until 1:22 left in the round, when he lands a wide counter right hand that catches Valuev on the side of the head, but Valuev immediately counters with a better right hand. Haye lands a jab to the body at 1:17 left. Haye lands a hooking left at :56 left. Valuev lands a jab at :27 left. He seems to be finding his range a bit this round. Valuev traps Haye in the corner and lands a right hand to the head in the last 10 seconds, but Haye comes back with a 3 punch combo, landing two rights to the head. Another tough round to score, but I think that was Valuev’s best round. 68-65 (5 rounds to 2) Haye
Round 8
Quick exchange against the ropes about a minute in — Valuev’s massive torso is blocking the camera angle and it’s hard to see whether either man lands anything clean or effective. Valuev jabs to Haye’s chest with about a min left. Haye misses with a wild right HAYEmaker to the head. Haye sticks him with a left at :42 left. Haye lands a big 1-2 combination with 10 sec left. The right hand bounces off the side of Valuev’s head as if it were armor plated. Like the early rounds, Valuev was the aggressor but was unable to land anything clean or effective. Haye scored with a handful of punches throughout the round. 78-74 (6 rounds to 2) Haye
Round 9
Same story: Haye throws nothing in the first min of the round. Valuev throws a dozen punches and misses with all of them. Haye lands a glancing right hand to the side of Valuev’s head at 1:21 of the round. 1:00 left and a huge 1-2-3 combination by Haye sends Valuev’s head snapping back and actually knocks him back a step or two. Biggest punch landed in the entire fight. Haye now on his bicycle again, with Valuev in pursuit. Haye lands a quick right hand at 10 sec left. Haye’s round. Valuev did literally nothing to win the round, and Haye landed that big right hand. 88-83 (7 rounds to 2) Haye The highlights between rounds show the big combo. The right hand landed right on the chin and really snapped Valuev’s head — he seems impossible to knock out.
Round 10
Same story for the first minute: nothing landed by either fighter. A minute in, Haye lands a quick left to the side of the head. Valuev misses with a counter right. Haye lands a hard right to the body at about 1:30 of the round. Haye lands a left with about 1:08 left, misses with a right. Haye lands a right hand with :20 left. Valuev lands a right to the body with :11 left. Haye’s round. Again, aside from the body shot toward the end of the round, Valuev landed nothing, while Haye landed a small handful of punches. 98-92 (8 rounds to 2) Haye
Round 11
Valuev lands a left about 30 sec into the round. Haye lands a little right on the inside at about 1:15 into the round as the ref is trying to break them up. Valuev lands a weak left jab at Haye in the corner, Haye escapes from the corner and counters with a 1-2. Hard to tell if it landed from the camera angle, though. Haye lands a jab to the body. Haye lands a weak right at about :50 left in the round. Valuev lands with a little slapping left hook on the inside. Haye pot-shotting in the last 10 seconds with right hands. Very close rounds. Neither man landed anything really effective. I gave it to Valuev because I thought it was one of his better rounds, but it wasn’t convincing. 107-102 (8 rounds to 3) Haye
Round 12
Valuev is much more aggressive this round. Seems to sense he is way behind on the scorecards. For the first time in the fight, he’s swinging wildly at Haye’s head, hoping to score a KO. Haye stays on his bicycle, like the previous 11 rounds, evading all the punches. Valuev lands a jab to the body about a minute in. Haye lands a wild lead right hand to the head. Valuev lands a right to the body at about 1:21 into the round. Haye lands a nice straight right hand about 1:30 in. Valuev keeps chasing, Haye keeps moving. Haye lands a beautiful 1-2 combo at 1:12 left in the round. He backs away and then comes back in and does it again. The 1-2 lands, and this time he follows it with a left hook, which sends Valuev staggering into the ropes. His legs are all over the place and it looks like he might go down! Haye jumps on him and starts throwing punches, landing a right and then a left. Valuev clinches. Haye tries to break free as Valuev holds on. The ref separates them, as Haye lands one more right hand. Haye lands a hooking right hand, and the ref warns him for hitting on the back of the head. At :40 left, Haye unloads another 1-2 and then another big right hand. Valuev doesn’t seem phased and has regained his equilibrium. At :10 left, Haye puts his right hand in the air briefly, then lands a left and a right on Valuev, and then puts his hand in the air again at the bell. Very one-sided round for Haye.
Final score: 117-112 (9 rounds to 3) for Haye
The judges scores:
116-112 David Haye
116-112 David Haye
114-114 Even
David Haye becomes only the second unified cruiserweight champion since Evander Holyfield to win a heavyweight world title.
Check back here for updates on this story and more boxing news, and of course don’t forget to participate in the biggest prediction league in boxing!
