All hail the new champion of the world

So Britain has a new heavyweight champion of the world: David Haye. In what was by no means a classic encounter, he succeeded in outpointing the defending WBA champion, Nikolai Valuev, on Saturday night. But despite what some commentators are saying, it was never a sure thing and I could see the uncertainty written all over Haye's face as he waited for the judges' verdict. The Sky Sports commentary team certainly doubted whether Haye had done enough, especially given the fact that Valuev has been the beneficiary of some dubious decisions in the past, particularly fighting on what was in essence home turf.
But as someone said in the aftermath of the fight, if you only land two or three punches a round and your opponent lands none at all, you still win. That was pretty much the way it went for the majority of the fight, with the notable exception of the final round. Valuev may as well have been shadow boxing and Haye got in a few punches in the early rounds which would surely have floored a smaller man.
But it turns out that the single biggest factor affecting the quality of the fight was not revealed until after it finished. Haye says he broke his hand early on. That would certainly explain why he held back on those famous Hayemakers until the twelfth round. It also makes his achievement all the more remarkable and reminds me of Joe Calzaghe's victory over Evans Ashira in 2005 when he took a points decision despite fighting with a broken left (leading) hand from the third round onwards.

Haye's victory is all very exciting, particularly the prospect of a first title defence in London next year against former champ John Ruiz. Ruiz is a tailor-made opponent for Haye and should give him the chance to show more of his skills and impress the all-important US audience. Then it's the brothers Klitschko.

Exciting stuff, but a word of caution from the always excellent Gareth Davies.

Haye versus Valuev is a circus sideshow

Heavyweight boxing has been in the doldrums for a while so there was definitely a buzz in boxing circles when David Haye stepped up to heavyweight after unifying the cruiserwight division.
And after a few false starts - most notably an aborted bout against Vitali Klitschko this summer - fight fans will get another chance to see Haye fighting at heavyweight next month. And not just any heavyweight but perhaps the heaviest of them all, the so-called Beast from the East, Nikolay Valuev. Standing 7ft 2 inches and weighing in at more than 23 stone, Valuev is, even by boxing standards, a freak of nature. Anyone tuning into the recent press conference may have been forgiven for thinking they'd stumbled across a David Attenborough documentary, because the fact is, and I'm not going to win any Russian friends by saying this, Valuev doesn't look human.
Haye told reporters: "He's a giant of a man, big, hairy and ugly." And it's hard to argue with that. But what fascinates me most is his head. It's literally twice the size of Haye's head and looks like a large, unmoulded lump of clay. You could argue that Haye will have a bigger target to aim for. True. But he's got to reach it first. Haye's giving up a full nine inches to Valuev as well as seven stone in weight. That's probably more than the average supermodel. Still, you've got to say, it's going to be a fascinating encounter. I can imagine non-boxing fans tuning in purely for the circus sideshow-aspect of the fight. It's being called, somewhat unimaginatively, David vs Goliath, and this is probably the closest we'll get to witnessing something in that biblical ball park.
So all eyes will be on Nuremburg on November 7, and let's not forget that there's a real world title on the line.