Ab-Titchaz
JF-Expert Member
- Jan 30, 2008
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Haye crowned WBA champion
David Haye produced a perfect performance to be crowned WBA heavyweight champion.
The Londoner did the impossible and out-pointed giant Russian Nikolai Valuev over 12 cat-and-mouse rounds in Nuremberg.
Few gave him a hope of lasting the distance - never mind winning on the scorecards - but after the first judge could not split them at 114-114, the final two gave it to Haye 116-112.
The moment it was confirmed Haye screamed to the heavens, his lifelong dream suddenly fulfilled and immediately the heavyweight division exploded back into life.
The Klitschkos will surely come soon but for now Britain should savour its first champion in the blue riband division since Lennox Lewis called it quits in 2003.
It was always going to take something special to defeat Valuev, whose sheer size alone made it a tougher task than Haye has ever undertaken.
It was always going to take the perfect gameplan from Adam Booth and it was always going to take the sort of disciplined performance few thought Haye the entertainer could produce.
But produce he did, dancing and darting for 12 rounds and sensationally wobbling the seven-foot giant with a sweet left hook in a blistering final round.
To floor Valuev would have been beyond even Haye's wildest dreams, but winning was not. Focused from the moment he strolled into the ring, the former cruiserweight king grew in stature as the fight went on