The coach stressed that in recent times his 2.13-meter tall student has improved his boxing skills.

“Recently, he has been working in defense, he moves around the ring a lot better. In sparring, which we did in Russia, the partners often went forward. However, Nikolay was very effective in curbing their attacks,” he said.

And the sparring that followed in Germany only increased Zimin’s confidence.

“This week, Nikolay has successfully completed several lengthy sparring sessions. His partners were strong and experienced boxers. The latest Valuev ended in the ninth round, knocking down the boxer. He managed to do it through a beautiful accented stroke. This confirms that we are going in the right direction,” the coach said.

Zimin also added that finding sparring partners for the bout against Haye was no easy task.

“Haye is an unconventional enemy. There are boxers who choose attacking tactics. Others are working on a counterattack. But talking about Haye, I would not assign him to any of those groups. He tries to improvise. And we kept that in mind when choosing our sparring partners.”

Zimin, who was the head of the Soviet boxing team, became Nikolay Valuev’s (50-1, 34 KOs) coach in 2007. It was under him that the Russian Giant regained his WBA belt, beating Sergey Lyakhovich from Belarus in 2008.

“Valuev is circus freak” – Haye

Meanwhile, David Haye has lashed out at Valuev in his usual style at a press conference in London.

“All you've got to do is look at a picture of the guy and that speaks volumes. I consider him more of a circus show freak that happens to be boxing. He's an ugly type of fighter, he tries to lean on you, tries to brawl and comes out with a really hairy chest that gets matted and is disgusting,” David Haye said of Valuev, Reuters news agency report.

“I've never been a big fan of matted hair in my face. The size I am, I sort of come up to his chest and apparently the word around the campfire is that he doesn't smell too sweet. I've talked to a few guys that have been in the ring with him and they say that's the first thing they notice, just the stench. Hopefully he’ll run a cold tap over himself or someone hoses him down outside before he comes in,” the British heavyweight added.

Haye stressed he plans to keep making fun of Valuev to drive the WBA champ crazy, to force the Russian to make mistakes by “fighting angry” in the ring.

“I always fight better when my opponent’s angry. I relish that. I need him to come out there and throw a lot of punches. I thrive off that excitement and that anticipation before a fight. I'm going to get him in a position where he really wants to not only beat me, but to kill me. I know he's big on hunting, on shooting bears and pigs and whatever. I want him to go out there and treat me the same way he tries to treat those animals,” he explained.

David Haye (22-1, 22 KOs) is a former undisputed cruiserweight champion, who at one point possessed the WBA, WBC, WBO and The Ring magazine titles, which he gave up to pursue his ambitions in the heavyweight division. The British boxer is 1.91-meters tall.

He was scheduled to face IBF and WBO champ Wladimir Klitschko on June 20, but the fight didn’t take place due to injury on Haye’s part.

During preparations for the bout, Haye launched a PR war against the Klitschko brothers. He was seen wearing a T-shirt of himself holding the decapitated heads of Wladimir and Vitaly.

WBC belt holder Vitaly Klitschko was to become Haye’s next opponent, but the British fighter aborted the talks at the very last moment and began negotiations with Valuev’s team.