BoxRec

I read Haye has been sparring David Price and Robert Helenius. I was just wondering about how those spars went and if anybody has got any insider knowledge, especially the Helenius spars. I hear Helenius broke his hand or something in training, so did that happen during the Haye sparring or did they never get to spar at all because of the injury? Anyone know anything?

"Chaul" posted this in the CS.

Helenius tells the local media that the sparring with Haye went suprisingly well for him. They sparred for 16 rounds and both had the upper in moments, according to Helenius. So, Helenius was actually surprised that he could keep up with Haye, but admits that he still has a lot to improve on.

His hand was injured after the sparring session during heavy bag training. His hand is swelling and the doctor told him to rest it for 3 weeks. This also means that he can't defend the EU belt in time. Besides, he's aiming higher. Taking this fight and then defending the EU belt even if his hand was ok would have meant taking two matches in a very tight schedule and now with the hand injury, they decided not to defend it. That match would have been against Rogan.

Helenius is expecting this fight against Liacovich to be rescheduled to the end of August.

Bit worrying that he said it went well though, you would expect him to say he had a torrid time .

Spiker wrote:Bit worrying that he said it went well though, you would expect him to say he had a torrid time .

Are you being sarcastic? It's hard to tell from a sentence of text.

Been sparring with big John McDermott hasn't he, according to M.Power?

Failed to floor him, which is no disgrace.

Haye has often said he spars to work on stuff, not to go out and dominate fighters as there would be no point to sparring.

So when someone like Helenius says he held his own, its more a case Haye wasn't going all out.

So I wouldn't read anything into it.

bengulnaci1 wrote:Haye has often said he spars to work on stuff, not to go out and dominate fighters as there would be no point to sparring.

So when someone like Helenius says he held his own, its more a case Haye wasn't going all out.

So I wouldn't read anything into it.

True. Or is it more a case of Helenius telling porkies to save face, perhaps? He's hardly going to tell the press he got his behind kicked, is he? For what it's worth, I heard the big Finn barely landed a single a jab on Haye in two spars.

Karl Jade wrote:Been sparring with big John McDermott hasn't he, according to M.Power?

Failed to floor him, which is no disgrace.

Would be interested to hear more about this

Eraserhead wrote:

bengulnaci1 wrote:Haye has often said he spars to work on stuff, not to go out and dominate fighters as there would be no point to sparring.

So when someone like Helenius says he held his own, its more a case Haye wasn't going all out.

So I wouldn't read anything into it.

True. Or is it more a case of Helenius telling porkies to save face, perhaps? He's hardly going to tell the press he got his behind kicked, is he? For what it's worth, I heard the big Finn barely landed a single a jab on Haye in two spars.

Who did you hear that from? I'm always skeptical of sparring rumours, especially when they involve one fighter completely outclassing another (as you have suggested) or one fighter knocking out another (according to some people both David Price and Kali Meehan have knocked out Haye in sparring). It would be no shock if Haye got the better of the action, but he is not Ali, so I would be surprised if Helenius "barely landed a single jab" over 16 rounds.

Karl Jade wrote:Been sparring with big John McDermott hasn't he, according to M.Power?

Failed to floor him, which is no disgrace.

John's been sparring Fury

crusader wrote:

Eraserhead wrote:

bengulnaci1 wrote:Haye has often said he spars to work on stuff, not to go out and dominate fighters as there would be no point to sparring.

So when someone like Helenius says he held his own, its more a case Haye wasn't going all out.

So I wouldn't read anything into it.

True. Or is it more a case of Helenius telling porkies to save face, perhaps? He's hardly going to tell the press he got his behind kicked, is he? For what it's worth, I heard the big Finn barely landed a single a jab on Haye in two spars.

Who did you hear that from? I'm always skeptical of sparring rumours, especially when they involve one fighter completely outclassing another (as you have suggested) or one fighter knocking out another (according to some people both David Price and Kali Meehan have knocked out Haye in sparring). It would be no shock if Haye got the better of the action, but he is not Ali, so I would be surprised if Helenius "barely landed a single jab" over 16 rounds.

Maybe Haye's tactics really do work (at avoiding the jab). Heh, we'll see. :P

Sparring stories are pretty tedious.

I'm sure Price, Meehan, McDermott and any other random fighter have floored Haye.

In the ring when it matters, he would blast all 3 of them out one after the other and all within 6 rounds. THATS all that matters!

Robert Helenius isn't a mug anyway, he would of brought some competitive sparring to Haye.

I've read before about Haye's sparring in BN. Vladamir Virches was sparring Haye for a fight (can't remember which). It said that Haye was particularly working on certain moves and Virches started taking liberties and taking things far too seriously. The following day Virches took liberties again so Haye decied to take things into his own hands. Virches came in looking to KO Haye, so Haye hit with such a body shot that he broke his rib. Virches went home later that day.

From what I've read Haye genuinley treats sparring as an opportunity to work on things. I thinks he likes his sparring partners to come at him hard ( Kelvin Davis springs to mind) but he himself tries to hone certain skills. Helenius is very good, the KO of Peter is particularly impessive. He must have been bought in to work Haye hard, otherwise why spend all that money on sparring otherwise? We've all heard apocryphal tales of sparring, but when it matters in the ring, Haye seems to do ok!

Ali worked on his weaknesses in sparring. Remember Norman Mailer saying in When We Were Kings how Larry Holmes would dominate their sparring sessions and Ali would work on his weaknesses.

What I will say is that any heavy worth their salt who gets a call from a heavyweight champion goes in and does what's asked or they're for the high jump. I mean, if you went in and mugged Lennox Lewis off when he was training for a massive fight, you'd expect to be either knocked out or told, 'thanks but no thanks' (Jeremy Williams... didn't he give it the biggun about how he dominated Lewis... yet he got whacked out by Akinwande.... so big deal).

Londonirish wrote:

Karl Jade wrote:Been sparring with big John McDermott hasn't he, according to M.Power?

Failed to floor him, which is no disgrace.

John's been sparring Fury

I know that, mate. I'm convinced somebody on here said Haye had been sparring Big John fairly recently.

DIRT SUGAR wrote:Ali worked on his weaknesses in sparring. Remember Norman Mailer saying in When We Were Kings how Larry Holmes would dominate their sparring sessions and Ali would work on his weaknesses.

What I will say is that any heavy worth their salt who gets a call from a heavyweight champion goes in and does what's asked or they're for the high jump. I mean, if you went in and mugged Lennox Lewis off when he was training for a massive fight, you'd expect to be either knocked out or told, 'thanks but no thanks' (Jeremy Williams... didn't he give it the biggun about how he dominated Lewis... yet he got whacked out by Akinwande.... so big deal).

He actually did a judo move on Lewis!

mickey1975 wrote:

DIRT SUGAR wrote:Ali worked on his weaknesses in sparring. Remember Norman Mailer saying in When We Were Kings how Larry Holmes would dominate their sparring sessions and Ali would work on his weaknesses.

What I will say is that any heavy worth their salt who gets a call from a heavyweight champion goes in and does what's asked or they're for the high jump. I mean, if you went in and mugged Lennox Lewis off when he was training for a massive fight, you'd expect to be either knocked out or told, 'thanks but no thanks' (Jeremy Williams... didn't he give it the biggun about how he dominated Lewis... yet he got whacked out by Akinwande.... so big deal).

He actually did a judo move on Lewis!

Yeah, that's my point, I don't think he lasted much longer. Punch the face of the hand that feeds you but don't bite it so's to speak!

Spiker wrote:Bit worrying that he said it went well though, you would expect him to say he had a torrid time .

Maby this will make you feel better. To the Finnish newspaper Helenius said that Haye is the best fighter he has ever been in ring with and statement includes his real fights and sparring sessions. Of course the interview is in Finnish but take my word for it.


http://www.iltasanomat.fi/muutlajit/hel ... lk_is_ur_1

mickey1975 wrote:

DIRT SUGAR wrote:Ali worked on his weaknesses in sparring. Remember Norman Mailer saying in When We Were Kings how Larry Holmes would dominate their sparring sessions and Ali would work on his weaknesses.

What I will say is that any heavy worth their salt who gets a call from a heavyweight champion goes in and does what's asked or they're for the high jump. I mean, if you went in and mugged Lennox Lewis off when he was training for a massive fight, you'd expect to be either knocked out or told, 'thanks but no thanks' (Jeremy Williams... didn't he give it the biggun about how he dominated Lewis... yet he got whacked out by Akinwande.... so big deal).

He actually did a judo move on Lewis!

Yeah he did, it's on Lewis's documentary dvd

Williams bragged that he put Lewis down but he failed to mention it was some kind of judo throw/trip!

Manny Steward said that Lewis gave him a bit of a hiding for it in a later spar. He got dropped too as a partner