Trainer Alexander Zimin believes there was bias against his fighter, Nikolai Valuev in the fight with David Haye this past weekend. Haye won a majority decision. (Photo via i.dailymail.co.uk)

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I don't think it's exactly wrong to have scored Saturday's WBA heavyweight title fight for Nikolai Valuev instead of David Haye, but trainer Alexander Zimin is a bit out there with his cries of bias:

"To be honest, I was very disappointed," told Zimin to Sportbox.ru. "It wasn’t boxing, it was some kind of long-distance running. In professional boxing only actions are evaluated. Attacking and counterattacking actions included. Based on that, Nikolay was attacking 80 percent of the fight.

"Maybe it didn’t look very impressive, but at least he wasn’t wiping his bottom against the ropes as Haye did. Professionals should lose scores for that instead of winning. That was not boxing, that was running. Of course, Nikolay wasn’t able to cope with such speed. From my point of view it was at least a draw. But the board decision was very strange – one judge gave a draw, and the others decided it was Haye’s victory by 4 points. That’s impossible! Their judgment was biased! It’s surprising and strange."

"That's impossible!" he moans.

I'm not going to go into a whole big spiel about this, so instead I will pose a series of questions. If Haye's majority decision win (116-112, 116-112, 114-114) was "impossible":

• Was Valuev's majority decision win over Evander Holyfield (116-112, 115-114, 114-114) also impossible?
• Was Valuev's majority decision win over John Ruiz in 2005 (116-114, 116-113, 114-114) also impossible?
• Was Valuev's majority decision win over Larry Donald (117-112, 115-113, 114-114) also impossible?
• Was Valuev's 2008 split decision win over John Ruiz (116-111, 116-113, 113-114) even more impossible? One of those judges even felt Ruiz won. That seems IMPOSSIBLE!!!

If you ask Richard Schaefer, David Haye is the next Muhammad Ali. (AP Photo/Christof Stache)

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Boxing promoters are (in)famous for their extreme hyperbole and exaggerations, but Golden Boy's Richard Schaefer has gone nuclear with this one. From the Mirror:

New world heavyweight king David Haye has been hailed as the greatest boxer since the legendary Muhammad Ali.

...

Golden Boy boss Richard Schaefer declared: "David is a boxing superstar. There are a lot of champions - but to be a superstar is another thing. For that you need that other ingredient - charisma.

"Lennox Lewis was a great champion, but he was not as charismatic as David Haye. Evander Holyfield was a great champion, but not as charismatic as David. Mike Tyson was a great champion, but he was a crazy guy. People watched because of the freak factor. So if you sit back and think when was the last champion like him, it really was Ali."

Head.desk. Head.desk.

1. David Haye is not the king of the heavyweight division. The real world champion is Wladimir Klitschko. Haye is drastically behind Wladimir and brother Vitali in terms of resume and career achievements. A win over a paper "champion" like Valuev is not even close to enough. I know most media just throw the word "champion" around to every hump who gets hold of one of these trinkets, but come on. To believe Haye is the best heavyweight in the world is to be dangerously delusional.
2. Lennox Lewis was a great champion. Evander Holyfield was a great champion. Mike Tyson was a great champion. David Haye has not proven to be a great champion at all. Again, not a shot at Haye -- it's just that he's not there yet, even if you believe he will be.
3. Tyson was not simply a great champion and "a crazy guy." People were not buying Tyson as a freak show during his truly best years, they bought him because he was a ferocious specimen and a brilliant fighter; charismatic, exciting, vicious, and ultra talented.
4. Furthermore, with this claim, Richard Schaefer shouldn't be calling anyone crazy.

It's not that I don't understand why Schaefer said it, it's that it really isn't going to make Haye any more marketable. "He's the most alluring champion since Ali!" just reeks of a desperate attempt to market the fighter more than it does actually sell anyone on him. Schaefer might as well be ambling around the thoroughfare of Deadwood offering us soap with a prize inside with this bit of promoting. It's ludicrous, dishonest and will probably make more people dislike Haye. If there's one thing I know boxing fans get their underoos in a twist over, it's the blatant hype jobs like this one.

The Mirror continued the unintentional comedy with this comment:

Modest WBA champ Haye was embarrassed by Schaefer's Ali comparison, but claims he can reign for years.

Ah, yes. Modest ol' David Haye. Haye would actually rank among the least modest major fighters in the sport today, probably, alongside Floyd Mayweather Jr., Zab Judah and Vic Darchinyan. But hey, at least he knows he's probably not Ali.

David Haye managed to win a close decision over Nikolai Valuev in Germany today, giving him the WBA heavyweight title. (Photo by Thomas Langer/Bongarts/Getty Images)

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David Haye managed to win a majority decision in Germany today, beating Nikolai Valuev for the WBA heavyweight title in a typically boring Valuev bout that may have finally rid the division of the giant Russian.

To be blunt, though, Haye was very fortunate to get out of Germany with the belt. He won on scores of 116-112, 116-112 and 114-114, and a 116-112 Valuev card could have been perfectly defensible. The fact that he managed to win a title by fighting as tentatively as he did, in Germany, is almost amazing. Bad Left Hook scored it 115-113 for Haye.

Haye (23-1, 21 KO) looked mostly to land one shot at a time, circling the ring endlessly and staying as far away from Valuev as he possibly could. In fact, there's no getting around it: Haye didn't look like he wanted anything to do with an actual fight against the seven-footer. Valuev (50-2, 34 KO) pressed the action most of the night, but mostly missed his shots.

Haye did rock and nearly drop Valuev in the 12th round, and I think had he gotten him down, Valuev wasn't going to get up. Haye then took his foot off the pedal and got back on his bike. At the time, it was very easy to think he needed that knockdown, or even a knockout. It turns out he didn't.

It was a dreadfully dull fight, almost a replay of Valuev's horrible win over Evander Holyfield last December. This time, Valuev pressed more, bumrushed a little bit, and didn't just stay flat-footed at center ring. Haye was way outside the pocket most of the fight.

Haye got lucky tonight. Not that he won -- I think he won the fight. But that he was given the decision in Germany against a reigning titlist while fighting so tentatively and even scared at times. I'm openly happy that Haye won, but if I were advising his career, I keep him away from the Klitschko brothers and even tell him to just shut up about them. Watching him against Valuev, there's no way he beats one of the Klitschkos. They both destroy him fairly early, and I'm quite certain of that now.

Haye will likely make his first defense against former titlist John Ruiz (44-8-1, 30 KO), who stopped journeyman Adnan Serin in the seventh round on the undercard. If Haye gets past Ruiz, who does fight more aggressively than he used to and still has a very good chin, there are plenty of fights out there. Haye against Tomasz Adamek in a battle of former cruiserweight champions could be quite interesting and really explosive. Haye could fight Cristobal Arreola or Odlanier Solis. There's plenty. But the Klitschkos? Stay away, David.

We'll be here starting at 3pm ET for today's heavyweight title fight between Russian giant Nikolai Valuev and confident Brit David Haye. The show is available in the States for $24.99 on pay-per-view, distributed by Integrated Sports. John Ruiz will be "featured" on the undercard, so get your energy shots ready.

NIKOLAI VALUEV		DAVID HAYE
	Main Event

Nikolai Valuev and David Haye battle today in Germany for the WBA heavyweight title. (Photo via www.donking.com)

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Bad Left Hook will have live, round-by-round coverage, scoring and analysis for both of these cards. Valuev-Haye starts at 3pm on Integrated Sports PPV in the States ($24.99) and on Sky Box Office in the UK, and the HBO card starts at 9:30pm ET.

Nikolai Valuev v. David Haye (12 Rounds, For Valuev's WBA Heavyweight Title)

I'll flat-out admit again that I'm rooting for Haye because a win for him makes the stagnant heavyweight division that much more interesting. The last time the division got any shot in the arm, it was Vitali Klitschko coming back. And that comeback has simply led to two Klitschkos manhandling their opposition instead of just the one. Haye winning opens things up. Valuev winning does not.

But Valuev can win, and the closer we get to it, the more it feels to me as though that's what we're going to see. I don't like it, but for all the world this just reeks of a massive disappointment for an exciting, dynamic fighter whose chin simply isn't going to stand up. Valuev will be more aggressive here than he was against Holyfield. Valuev, soft as he is, is almost surely a better cardio guy than Haye, and his stamina is likely to hold up. Haye could stop Valuev, but I don't think he's going to get there.

But it's the chin, really. Monte Barrett clipped and wobbled Haye a year ago -- Haye's last fight, mind you -- and with all respect to Barrett (whose fights I've generally enjoyed over the years, and who is still owed a debt of gratitude for getting Tye Fields off of TV), he stinks now.

Valuev will lose some early rounds. Valuev will eventually catch and hurt David Haye. Haye will get up, try to fight back, and in his recklessness, get hit hard again. I hate doing it, and I hope I'm wrong, but I'm going with Valuev by TKO.

Alfredo Angulo v. Harry Joe Yorgey (12 Rounds, For the Vacant Interim WBO Junior Middleweight Title)

I know he's only 27 and that he's got only 17 pro fights under his belt, but this is an immediate future make-or-break for Angulo. He's mauled everyone except Kermit Cintron, and since I think Cintron is way better than Yorgey (yes, I just complimented Cintron), I sort of expect he'll do that again. Yorgey's a tough guy and a decent boxer, and I think he'll make this a pretty entertaining fight for as long as it lasts, but I just don't think he's in Angulo's league. Of Jack Loew fighters, Yorgey's over by Billy Lyell, not by Kelly Pavlik. Angulo by TKO.

Chad Dawson v. Glen Johnson II (12 Rounds, For the Vacant Interim WBC Light Heavyweight Title)

The WBC light heavyweight titlist, for the record, is Jean Pascal, who won it in June, defended it against a mandatory in September, and is fighting a rematch with Adrian Diaconu in December. But hey! Interim title! Good job, WBC! I'll be sure to take your moral stands from your idiotic convention really seriously!

Not even that, but Dawson held the title before and gave it up so he could fight Antonio Tarver instead of Diaconu. Yet Shane Mosley, who once gave up the interim WBC welterweight title, needs to publicly apologize for doing that if he wants the WBC to sanction a fight with Andre Berto in January. Who do these rubes think they are, exactly? I'm serious when I say a six-year-old could poke holes in their logic. I'm no rocket surgeon over here and it's plain as day to me.

Anyway, I expect Dawson to win this one clearly. It's not that I'm underestimating Johnson or don't think he'll make for another competitive, entertaining fight, but Chad's younger and faster and all that. Johnson's a 40-year old man, and 40 is going to be a big, flashing red light for a little while longer. If Johnson wins this fight, that'll put that to an end. Bernard Hopkins alone isn't enough to make me stop thinking fighters tend to decline pretty hardcore at this age. Dawson by UD.

Primo Carnera (right) suffered his share of losses to much smaller men. (Photo via www.boxingforum.com)

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When David Haye climbs into the ring later today to take on WBA heavyweight titlist Nikolai Valuev, he'll be looking to make history as best I can tell.

Should Haye win the fight, he will have set a record for overcoming the largest official weight difference in notable heavyweight boxing history. Just a quick scan of some famous fights and other notable bouts shows that Haye's 98-pound disadvantage tomorrow would top the record that Ruslan Chagaev set when he beat Valuev in 2007.

Now, I might be wrong, but I'm fairly sure I'm not. If David Haye can beat Valuev tomorrow, he will have made some form of history, no matter how frivolous it really is in the grand scheme of things.

One note of course: Valuev isn't just heavy, he's seven feet tall. Some of the guys on this chart were giants for their time, such as Primo Carnera (6'5 1/2"), but the height differential tomorrow is quite enormous, too. Jack Sharkey, who beat Carnera while giving up 59 pounds, was about 6'0". Max Baer was 6'2 1/2", and Joe Louis was 6'2". They gave up very little height to Carnera. Jack Dempsey's very famous win over Jess Willard was similar -- Willard was a massive 6'6 1/2", while Dempsey was also quite a big man at 6'1".

Haye, at about 6'3", gives up a lot more height than those guys did. Valuev has often beern compared to some of these guys, relative to the eras. Like Carnera, many have seen him as a lumbering lummox with no appreciable skill, but I'd actually say he's a far better boxer than Carnera was.

Here are some of the notable fights Haye over Valuev would top. (Notes: The biggest weight differential loss of Carnera's career was actually 68 pounds to Larry Gains in 1932, and I included Holmes-Butterbean mostly for fun.)

John Ruiz faces Adnan Serin in the co-feature to Valuev-Haye this Saturday. "The Quite Man" says he's not the same fighter he used to be. (Photo via www.boxnews.com.ua)

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While Valuev-Haye is the big attraction in Germany on Saturday, longtime heavyweight contender and former titlist John Ruiz will be in action, and should he win as expected, is next in line to face the Valuev-Haye winner.

Ruiz does have a preference, he says, and as Teddy Atlas kept yammering on about last night from Camp Lejuene, it all comes down to "location, location, location."

"I’m 0-3 in Germany and 6-0 fighting in England," Ruiz joked, "so I guess I’d rather fight Haye."

Ruiz dropped two close and controversial decisions to Valuev in the past.

"The Quiet Man" (who ironically always has something to say) also offers a bit of hope to American pay-per-view buyers who probably groaned when they saw that he was the main co-feature on the card.

"I’m very happy that my fight is going to be on pay per view in North America. My fans and media there haven’t been able to watch my last few fights because they weren’t televised there. They think I still fight the same way, but I’m much more aggressive, and now they’ll be able to see how much I’ve improved. I’ve been working hard the past three months with my new head trainer, Miguel Diaz, and assistant Richie Sandoval. Somewhere along the line, I got away from the basics, and we’ve been working in that area. I had been leaning in and landing too close to my opponent, which resulted in a lot of clutching and grabbing. We’ve improved my style; I’m more aggressive now, moving more and getting hit less."

Having seen some of Ruiz's recent fights, I will join the small collective that will tell you that he's not joshin' about this. Ruiz has been much more aggressive lately and isn't quite the bore he was during his peak. He's also made about 95% valid points in his recent complaints about the WBA and other things in boxing that have really been grinding his gears. Say what you will about Ruiz, but he doesn't come into arguments without some real ammunition.

I am still not thrilled that I'll be seeing John Ruiz's tune-up fight for part of my $25 PPV bill, but I'm going to try to put aside the old biases and be open-minded.

Monte Barrett remains the only man who has fought both combatants, and he's picking Nikolai Valuev over David Haye this Saturday. (Photo via nbcsportsmedia.msnbc.com)

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Monte Barrett, who has fought both men: "David Haye has more tenacity. But I think Valuev will win the fight because he’s good at what he does. ... I think [Haye is] making the same mistake I made when I fought him. He’s getting caught up in the hype. ... [Haye] has power. He’s not heavy-handed, he just has a lot of pop in his punch. When he hit me it reminded me of Wladimir Klitschko. He has deceptive speed about his power and Klitschko has the same type of power in his punches. Valuev is not heavy handed at all." (Boxing News, link via BoxingScene.com)

The following picks are all from Sporting Life.

Ricky Hatton: "David packs a lot of power and I think he can do to Valuev what no-one else has done and knock him out in sensational fashion."

Enzo Maccarinelli: "I do feel David can beat him and if he can put Valuev down, that giant frame is going to be hard to get off the ground. I think it will be a late stoppage."

James DeGale: "As time has gone on I fancy his chances less and less. Valuev is humongous! If he doesn't knock him out in six I can't see it. He's not going to get a decision in Germany, is he?"

Arthur Abraham: "I think Nikolai is going to win. For Haye it will be difficult to come out of cruiserweight and fight a man that is as tall and heavy as Valuev. Haye is a good boxer, no doubt about that, but I believe that Niko will take care of business."

The rest of that Sporting Life article has thoughts from Emanuel Steward, Danny Williams, Frank Warren, Frankie Gavin, Matthew Macklin and Tony Jeffries.

David Haye, in many ways, carries the hopes of a division on his shoulders this Saturday against Nikolai Valuev.

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Let's just come right out and say it: If Nikolai Valuev retains his WBA heavyweight title on Saturday in Germany when he faces David Haye, the heavyweight division remains that far off from anything terribly interesting happening.

Even though Haye takes his share of talk for being mouthy or arrogant or egotistical, or for ducking out of fights with both Klitschkos this year after making such a show of calling them out, I think the vast majority of boxing fans around the world will be rooting for Haye to take Valuev out of the picture.

It's nothing personal against Valuev, really, it's just that his fights stink. He's deserved to lose more than the one time he has. John Ruiz beat Valuev and was jobbed. A 12,000-year-old Evander Holyfield beat Valuev and was jobbed. Valuev has plenty of legitimate wins, too, I'm not saying that he doesn't. I'm also not saying he's somehow not a legit fighter because he happens to be seven feet tall.

It's just that his fights are rotten to watch, he's generated no significant interest over his career, and if he was going to make anything happen, he would have by now.

Haye, on the other hand, has a future. He's bigger than he's often given credit for, at 6'3" with a 78-inch reach. He's a fitness fanatic, the type of guy that stays in immaculate shape between his fights, much like his would-be rivals, the Klitschkos. He's got massive power. And at 29, he's still young enough to stir up some genuine interest in the still-failing heavyweight division.

But for as much talk as there is of Haye knocking Valuev out, I just can't see it. Brickhaus said something to the same effect, and here are the two scenarios I think are most likely for Saturday.

1. David Haye by decision

Haye will out-quick and batter Valuev, but never break him. He will win a clear decision -- clear even in Germany -- and head off to his likely mandatory fight with John Ruiz, another thriller waiting to happen.

2. Nikolai Valuev by knockout

Haye's chin has always been a bit dodgy. Monte Barrett managed to rock him around a little bit in his proper heavyweight debut last November -- coincidentally, the last time Haye fought. With the unusual angles from which Valuev can punch a man, including straight down, Haye has got to be careful to not leave himself wide open. For such a huge man, you could say that Valuev doesn't punch that hard. But it's relative; he is a huge man, and he punches plenty hard enough to knock Haye out if David gets reckless.

I can't see Valuev being stopped by Haye unless it's an accumulation of body work that just breaks Valuev's spirit and gets him to quit on his stool or something like that. It's not that I underestimate Haye's power, which I think is outstanding. It's that I think the only guy in the division that might be able to seriously knock Valuev out is Wladimir Klitschko, were Wlad willing to unleash one of his cannon right hands or a series of left hooks like destroyed Ray Austin a couple years back. Valuev's just such a mass of flesh, blood, bone and muscle that I don't think anyone will really hurt him too bad without the perfect shot, and like him or not, he's not a dumb fighter, and he protects himself.

I am oddly excited for this fight because of what a Haye victory could mean. Haye is an exciting fighter who could finally spark some real interest in the division. We all recognize that the Klitschkos are great talents and have become as close to unbeatable compared to the rest of their division as it's likely to get, and that's nice, but they're never going to stir up any real emotion or interest unless they were to do the unthinkable and fight each other.

David Haye is the sort of talent and personality that can revive a division like this, which has stagnated but does have some nice young talent here and there.

But if Valuev wins? That's a bitter question to taste, really. If Valuev wins, and deserves to have won, then Haye leaves Germany dejected, embarrassed and in many ways, debunked in the court of public opinion. It'd be a long, hard climb for him back up the ladder. And it would mean that still another of the major heavyweight titles is controlled by a man who just doesn't make for a compelling night at the fights.

For the good of heavyweight boxing, David Haye must win.

(Photo via www.google.com)

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David Haye arrived in Germany just recently for his Saturday fight with WBA heavyweight titleholder Nikolai Valuev, and in typical Haye fashion, he found something to say, and he did so in a rather hilarious fashion. From Haye's blog at The Sun:

We were booked on the ridiculously early 7am flight and that meant I had to be packed and out the door at 5am.

Given that we train very late in the evening and didn't finish until midnight, I ended up getting zero hours sleep on Sunday night.

That was annoying, but nothing I couldn't handle.

The most frustrating part was still to come, as when I reached German soil I was guided towards a disgusting hotel, with a dingy room.

After a quick call or two, we managed to depart the rancid lair with our legs and arms still intact.

We actually ended up at a lovely five-star hotel, though we had to pay for the five-star privilege. Still, if it saves us from the guaranteed Black Death of the first place, it will be well worth the price.

These are the sort of mind games and tactics you have to put up with when fighting abroad.

They rattle some fighters, while others refuse to ever box on foreign territory. The foreign promoters are always looking to give their guy any possible advantage and they'll look to screw you around left, right and centre if they think it's going to unsettle you.

So Haye is already saying he's had "sleeping problems," but he's framing it in such a comical manner that he probably never had any single problem with it whatsoever. The guy goes a bit over the top sometimes, but it's this sort of humor that makes me really like him. I mean that whole thing is funny.

Valuev did respond, though:

"I don't care whether he can sleep or not," said Valuev. "And I don't really care about what hotel he stays in."

Short. To the point. Effective.