• Steve Bunce

Haye energised by sight of decaying Vitali

Vitali Klitschko stopped Tomasz Adamek in the tenth round to retain the WBC heavyweight title © Getty Images

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• Profile: David Haye | Vitali Klitschko

If David Haye wanted to fight Vitali Klitschko before watching him defeat Tomasz Adamek on Saturday, then he will want it even more now. Klitschko looked slower than ever, more cautious than ever, and there was a disturbing moment when, under no pressure, he fell over like he'd been hit by a bullet from a sniper's gun. That's called your body giving up in any language.

His neck, shoulders and back seemed to be hurting him, and that's understandable - he is 40 now - but it made him appear seriously slow. If Haye was thinking "I fancy it" last week, he will now be on the phone shouting: "Get me him!" A promoter like Don King or Frank Warren will have seen the signs and, if they had Haye, they would be putting the fight to bed, trust me.

I saw things in Vitali that made me think David could beat him, and I'm now very confident the fight will happen. The fantastic veteran looked lumbering - he was dragging his right leg along at a funny angle, and couldn't turn it to produce any power. All the power he had was coming from his arms - and yeah, that's plenty, but he never once pivoted and turned on his right foot, which suggests a knee or ankle problem.

And for me, I don't think he was confident in his own ability. He had Adamek out on his feet several times, but it took the referee to put an end to the slaughter in the tenth round - and it was the referee who got the most applause from fans at the end of the night.

People will have watched Adamek - an ex-cruiserweight who's much shorter than Vitali - and now expect Haye to suffer a similar fate. The one thing David has over Adamek is that he is fast and nimble, two things Adamek is not - the Pole has always fought slowly. Surprise is not one of his weapons. On the contrary, that's all David's got.

There are several ways Haye can beat Vitali (and trust me, it's not easy to beat Vitali): cut him, run and outpoint him - or hope that his body gives in, he falls over and twists his ankle.

Sometimes you forget how much better an athlete - not necessarily a fighter - Wladimir is compared to 40-year-old Vitali, so don't get too caught up in how Haye fared against the younger Klitschko. And don't worry about whether Haye can handle Vitali's power - there's a whole list of people who Wladimir has knocked cold, and Haye took his best punches.

His face was swollen, but people have seldom managed to give him an ounce of credit for the amount of punishment he took.

Klitschko struggled to channel power through his whole body © Getty Images

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Although he failed to do so against Wladimir, David should be able to get under Vitali's skin, because he's the one who lost his mind in those fiery press conferences earlier this year. Wladimir kept his calm, whereas Vitali was going wild.

What David's got to do is try and not get hit, then pick off the punches, which is what he should have done against Wladimir - but he got stung early on, and realised that Wladimir is a lot bigger, a lot better, than he thought.

That won't happen with Vitali - he may be shocked how tall he is, how powerful, but he'll never be shocked by how slow he is. It really is the speed heavyweight fight.

If I was Haye, I'd jump all over it. Now.

Floyd's path to Pacquiao
The more I look at Floyd Mayweather Jnr v Victor Ortiz, the more I'm convinced it's the first of a series of fights that will probably end with a Mayweather v Manny Pacquiao showdown.

Perhaps Mayweather just wants to sign off in style - not with a win against Juan Manuel Marquez or Shane Mosley, but by beating Ortiz, Amir Khan and then, at the end, Pacquiao.

Ortiz is a risky fight to take in many ways, because he brings things to the table that Marquez and Mosley didn't (and I'm not saying Ortiz is better than those two): speed and youth. Those are big factors.

Marquez and Mosley brought fantastic legacies into the ring, this kid doesn't - in fact, it's quite the reverse. He's still trying to break free of the tarnish that surrounds his capitulation against Marcos Maidana in 2009, when he quit because punches were hurting him too much.

People will see Mayweather fighting Ortiz, a southpaw, and assume it's a tune-up for Pacquiao. But I don't think they're that similar in styles, although Ortiz is very fast.

If he beats Ortiz, I reckon he'll announce one more, then Pacquiao. And the man in the middle is probably Khan.

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