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Sports 02/05/2007 David Haye praises Chagaev

David Haye believes Uzbekistan’s Ruslan Chagaev - dubbed the ’White Tyson’ - is the pick of the current batch of heavyweights, ITV-Boxing.com reported.

Haye celebrated his own debut in the division with a spectacular first-round demolition of Tomasz Bonin, who was ranked 11 by the WBC, at Wembley Arena on Friday night.

The 26-year-old Londoner will drop back down to cruiserweight to face WBC and WBA champion Jean Marc Mormeck this autumn and then make a couple of defences before stepping back up.

With his confidence high after blasting out Bonin in just one minute 45 seconds, Haye believes he has the tools to rule the heavyweight division.

He said: "Wladimir Klitschko will get done early by Lamon Brewster - he was knocked out early by Corrie Sanders. He’s no world beater - just big at 6ft 6in.

"He’s easy to hit - he just tries to get you out with the jab. I’d try to get inside that, land some big shots and take him out early.

"I think Ruslan Chagaev is one of the better fighters because of his style. He’s a southpaw and he knows how to use that. He showed great heart against Nikolai Valuev.

"He thinks about his defence and isn’t taking shots all the time. It would be a good fight between us but I’ve got all the advantages over him.

"I was rooting for Valuev to beat Chagaev because I wanted to fight him - it would have been a real David and Goliath story then. But the freakshow is over already.

"Shannon Briggs throws only four or five punches a round - I don’t know what he’s doing."

Next week Haye and his promoter Frank Maloney will head to the United States on a publicity drive aimed at courting networks HBO and Showtime.

Maloney said: "We’ll go to New York to meet with a number of people, including Showtime and HBO.

"We’ll present them with tapes of some of David’s knockouts because we all know that to be a real legend in boxing you need to conquer the American market."

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