David Haye told Soccer AM why he has been winding up heavyweight opponent Nikolai Valuev.
Haye hopes Valuev will come out swinging
David Haye says he has been intentionally trying to get under Nikolai Valuev's skin to give him a better chance of knocking out the giant Russian.
The two heavyweights will clash in Nuremberg on November 7th, as Haye bids to become Britain's first world heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis.
And while the Millwall fan revealed his strenuous training regime was winding down, he admitted he would continue to windup the 7ft 2in man mountain, right up to fight night.
"I need him to come out swinging and I need him to come out there and really want to hurt me and really try and rip my head off," he told
Soccer AM.
"He's got such long arms he just keeps people at the end of his jab. So I need him to open up and get mad so he loses his technique and then I can get inside and do my thing."
Training
Haye will fly to Germany on Monday ahead of the pre-fight press conference on Tuesday and he says his training couldn't have gone any better.
"Training has been going smooth," he said. "I've had some big guys in the gym sparring with me, not quite 7ft 2in, but they're close to 7ft.
"And I've adjusted to punching up, and them punching down at me with a lot more weight."
"I've got a real hard session tomorrow (Sunday) and that will be the last really tough one," he added. "I've got to do 15 hard rounds, pushing it to the limit until I'm completely exhausted.
"Then I slowly start winding down, so that by the time the fight comes I'll be itching and bouncing and ready to destroy something."
Cool
He may be looking to destroy something, but Haye says he will be cool, calm and collected when he gets in the ring:
"I don't get angry when I'm fighting, I get focussed," he said. "I know what I need to do and I stick to the plan.
"It's going to be a great fight, and when you see the size difference between the two us, you'll realise this is going to be something special. This is my night to shine."
