FanHouse DavidHaye

FanHouse live blogged round-by-round updates of David Haye's majority-decision upset of Nikolay Valuev in of one of the more intriguing heavyweight fights of the year. Valuev had a clear size advantage over Haye, but boxing experts were split on who would come out on top of this one.

Valuev fell to 50-2 in his career (34 knockouts), while Haye improved to 23-1 (21 KOs). We will have a complete wrap-up of this match soon. In the meantime, see how FanHouse scored the fight.

Check out the fight recap after the jump.

David Haye has fists that have earned him the nickname, "The Hayemaker," since only one opponent in 22 victories has gone the distance with him.

But the London resident is known by opponents as much for his verbal taunts and jabs outside of the ring as he is for the actual bombs he throws inside of it.

Haye, for example, once wore T-shirts sporting the decapitated likenesses of the siblings, heavyweight champions Wladimir Klitschko (IBF and WBO) and Vitali Klitschko (WBC), during promotions of scheduled bouts with each that never materialized.

And during the buildup to Saturday's matchup with WBA titlist, Nikolay Valuev, of Russia, Haye's vocal assault on the largest heavyweight champion in history have been equally relentless.

Called by Haye, "a circus freak, a zombie and a robot," the seven-foot Valuev literally steps over the ropes instead of through them because he says "it's easier."

Saturday's heavyweight matchup between seven-foot, WBA champ, Nikolay Valuev, and six-foot-three challenger, David Haye, in Germany has the proverbial makings of a "David vs. Goliath" matchup.

Valuev (50-1, 34 knockouts) weighed more than 310 pounds for his last fight in December, compared to 215 for Haye (22-1, 21 KOs), a rising cruiserweight (200 pounds).

Check out the results (below) of a poll taken from some of boxing's most expert sources for their rationales on just which fighter will emerge victorious.

Although his Nov. 8 bout slated for Jeju Island, South Korea, was canceled, 47-year-old former four-time champion, Evander Holyfield, could fight South African, Francois Botha, on Dec. 19, in Uganda. A good showing in the Botha fight could also lead to a possible title shot at WBC champion, Vitali Klitschko, Holyfield's manager, Ken Sanders, told FanHouse on Tuesday.

"We do this fight in December, then I'd say in February or March, we could have a championship fight with the WBC's Vitali Klitschko," said Sanders, whose contention is supported by comments made by WBC president, Jose Sulaiman.

"If Evander comes and has a good showing in the fight that takes place in Jeju, I think that Klitschko might take a fight with him," Sulaiman, told FanHouse on Sept. 28 when Holyfield-Derric Rossy still was scheduled. "I believe that Evander Holyfield is one of the best heavyweight fighters of the last quarter century."

At age 78, boxing promoter Don King is still at it.

The man who brought the world "The Rumble In The Jungle" on Oct. 30, in 1974, featuring Muhammad Ali's dramatic, eighth-round knockout of George Foreman in Kinshasa, Zaire, will celebrate that event's 35th anniversary on Halloween with the first-ever, boxing event to be held at Las Vegas' Treasure Island.

That's when IBF bantamweight (118 pounds) titlist Joseph Agbeko (27-1, 22 knockouts) will put his crown on the line against Colombia native Yonnhy Perez (19-0, 14 KOs) of Santa Fe Springs, Calif., as part of an event to be televised on Showtime.

"This event at Treasure Island is going to be a great festival. I'm bringing the eighth wonder of the world to Las Vegas, King Kong," said King, referring to the nickname given Agbeko for his ferocity in the ring.

There are reports across the globe that we have our first real heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis retired in 2003.

Wladimir Klitschko defeated some guy named Ruslan Chagaev Saturday in Germany to retain his IBF and WBO titles. Klitschko also won The Ring magazine belt for recognition as the best heavyweight in the game.

Big deal.

The June 20 heavyweight title fight between Wladimir Klitschko and David Haye has been canceled, with Haye saying he won't be able to box because of an injury. Klitschko, however, says he still intends to show up and fight someone on June 20 at the Veltins Arena in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, where around 50,000 tickets have already been sold.

I don't think any boxing match -- not even one as big as Ricky Hatton vs. Manny Pacquiao -- could sell out a football stadium in the United States. Boxing just isn't popular enough in the U.S. anymore to to get more than 80,000 fans in one venue like it did in the 1920s, when Jack Dempsey could sell out Soldier Field and the Polo Grounds.

But in Europe it's another matter. When David Haye fights Wladimir Klitschko on June 20 at the Veltins-Arena in Germany, it's expected to draw about 60,000 fans. And Hatton thinks that if he were to fight back home in England instead of Las Vegas, he could draw even more spectators than that.

The British boxer David Haye, who could fight a Klitschko brother for a heavyweight title belt, is a big fan of mixed martial arts. In fact, Haye praises MMA so often that the British newspaper The Sun says there's speculation he could quit boxing and look for a career in the cage.

And that's just silly. The finances of boxing and MMA are such that the 28-year-old Haye would be walking away from many millions of dollars over the course of his athletic career if he were to quit boxing for MMA. Although Haye says he's tempted to give MMA a try, we know there's absolutely no chance that he'll do it until he can start making the kind of money in MMA that he can make in boxing.

But while no one should take The Sun's suggestion that Haye might switch sports seriously, we should take seriously what Haye says about the two sports. Both Haye and Britain's other top boxer, Ricky Hatton, have noted that UFC events have more energy than boxing events, and that boxing needs to do more to appeal to younger fans.

That doesn't mean boxing is in danger of losing established stars like Haye and Hatton. But it does mean that unless things change, the next generation of athletes -- and the next generation of fans -- will prefer MMA to boxing.

It's bad for boxing that WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko will defend his belt against Juan Carlos Gomez instead of David Haye. But it's worse that this kind of thing goes on all the time in this sport.

The two best heavyweights in the world are Vitali and his brother Wladimir Klitschko, who owns the IBF and WBO belts. Since the Klitschko brothers will never fight each other, boxing fans won't get to see a unified heavyweight title.

But the next-best thing would be for one of the Klitschkos to fight Haye, the former undisputed cruiserweight champ who is now a heavyweight. Klitschko vs. Haye is just the kind of heavyweight fight that boxing needs.