When the Hayemaker fought Lumumba Boy

[BoztheMadman]

It was an unforgettable fight. 26 September 2003: the crowd gathered in Rivermead Leisure Centre in Reading, Berkshire to watch a fight between the young up and coming knockout artist David Haye, still 22, and the 31-yearold Congo-native Lolenga Mock. The fight was a mismatch for more than one reason: Haye was a cruiserweight while Mock had campaigned mostly as a super middleweight and sometimes as a light heavyweight. This was his first fight at cruiserweight. He already had 6 losses behind him in 28 fights and hadn't won a fight since 1999, plus he had only fought twice in the last year. On top of that, the 6foot3 Haye towered above the 5foot10 Mock. It all seemed like a perfect pushover for Haye, a cake walk. And it surely began as such. Haye took charge from the start and sent an off-balance Mock down with a right hook in the first round. Mock got up and looked like he was unhurt. The round was pretty competitive otherwise. What happened in the next round would take everyone by surprise, most of all Haye himself; midway thru the round, Mock suddenly unleashed a perfect roundhouse right that caught Haye on the temple and sent him down and wobbling. It looked like there was an upset in the making. Haye got up, still looking wobbly on his legs and wrestled Mock down to the canvas in order to get more time to recover. Lolenga pounded him on top of the head and sideways and got in a few clean punches with Haye holding and retreating to the ropes. Fortunately for him, Mock hesitated to attack and didn't try to finish off his hurt opponent. As the bell rang, Haye flashed a wolf smile, as if he was saying "you missed your chance mate, now you're toast!"

 

In the third round Haye looked completely recovered and once again threw himself at his older and shorter foe. There wasn't as much action in this round as in the previous two, Haye landing some weaker shots and Mock trying to nail him with the right again but failing. The scores were 28-27 to the Hayemaker. The fourth round began and Haye came out aggressively again, but was caught by another right hand from Mock that hurt him and he went down, but this time it was Mock wrestling him down to the canvas. Mock was really strong for his 5foot10in frame and he proved, despite not being a natural cruiserweight, that he could tangle with such big and strong cruisers such as Haye. Haye was pacing himself and popping the jab, clearly waiting to land that big punch. And then Mock made a mistake: he got too offensive and forgot about the defense, going all out on Haye and throwing a barrage of wide shots among which about half landed and it was then, at the 2:13 mark, that Haye finally found his mark, landing a big uppercut as Mock came forward. It sent him down for the second time. Mock got up and looked hurt, but not completely done. Still, the referee Mark Green waved the fight off with 33 seconds left. The crowd protested loudly, for they had been cheated of a major finish of an exciting battle. Even the commentators could not understand why the fight had been stopped so early. Still, it didn't matter to Haye for he had won his 7th professional fight. It was the first time he tasted how it was to be in a real fight, the first time he had been down.

 

Lolenga "Lumumba Boy" Mock would return to fighting at his normal weight classes, light heavy and super middle while Haye would go on to conquer the cruiserweights. I think Haye's handlers regretted the choice of Mock as his "sacrificial lamb", for he proved to be a wolf in lamb's clothing. Mock would never be stopped again in his next 17 fights and won the European super middleweight title twice and European light heavyweight title once. It was a very brave fight against overwhelming odds. He would go on to stop the former IBF smw-champion Charles Brewer by TKO10 and then lose by UD to Lucian Bute. For Haye meanwhile, this fight was a foreshadowing of things to come, as he took on Carl Thompson a year later and dished out all he had, only for Thompson to bounce back and stop him in the 5th round. Mock came mighty close to doing the same thing that night.

Edited April 7, 2015 by BoztheMadman

[WelshDevilRob]

Re: When the Hayemaker fought Lumumba Boy

 

Sensational fight!

 

 

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[selij]

Re: When the Hayemaker fought Lumumba Boy

 

Nice article Boz :thumb:

 

Some proper windmilling going down that nite....

 

[h=1]David Haye Vs Lolenga Mock[/h]

[BoztheMadman]

Re: When the Hayemaker fought Lumumba Boy

 

Nice article Boz :thumb:

 

Some proper windmilling going down that nite....

 

David Haye Vs Lolenga Mock

 

 

 

 

Took you a looong time to discover it mate. Lol...thanks.