It’s difficult to work out exactly where David Haye’s career is heading. To suggest it is stagnating would be wrong, after all for his next fight, a week on Saturday, he will step into the ring against a 6ft 9in (2.06m), 18-stone (114kg) opponent in Tyson Fury.
But there is a sense of him being at a career crossroads, and it is not altogether easy to see where he goes next if, as expected, he overcomes Fury.
‘There is no doubting Haye’s calibre as a boxer. He was an excellent cruiserweight who has struggled to properly make the transition to heavyweight, particularly in an era dominated by the much bigger, bulkier heavyweights than the smaller and more nimble like in Mike Tyson’s generation.
For his part, Haye is relatively honest about his current position. At this stage – he turns 33 next month – he never envisaged stepping into the ring for an all-British encounter. In fact, he had planned to be enjoying retirement by now as a unified world champion.
The only problem was the iron fists and jaw of Wladimir Klitschko. That fight two years ago was supposed to be his career high, his chance to bow out much as fellow Briton Lennox Lewis had done so 10 years earlier. As it was, he was completely outclassed from the opening bell to the end of the final round. Despite that, he insists there are no regrets.
“You can’t look back and regret,” he says. “I didn’t perform at my best against Klitschko and really felt like I had more to give but that’s in the past now.”
By his own admission, he is surprised to still be fighting after all this time. “I wanted to retire at 30,” he says. “That was always the plan. That didn’t happen and I’m 32 now. I’d like to have a heavyweight title shot next year.”
In global terms, though, there is a perception that Haye is old news, a fighter past his prime but his confidence in his own ability and his ambitions remain undiminished. “I’ll retire once I’m unified champion,” says Haye, like any heavyweight over the years who has been unable to give up the lure of the ring.
“Much like Lennox Lewis did, I want to bow out like the main man. I think I still have that in there to be the main man. I’m still fighting young guys on the up and I know people will think I’m on the way down, that I’ve had my big fights and had my day but I want to show people what I’ve still got left.”
Haye is one of only two people – the other being Evander Holyfield – to be a world champion at both cruiserweight and heavyweight. He said: “I’m very proud of what I’ve done. I’ve been undisputed champion in more than one division, and that’s a tough one. The reason it’s hard is the heavyweights are so much bigger than they used to be so you need to be twice as skillful and twice as fit.”
Fist of Fury
Fury is still a little bit of an unknown quantity in the ring. At times, the 25-year-old has hinted at very real potential on the global stage, at others he has looked second rate. Even Haye is unsure what to make of his gargantuan opponent. He said: “I take him seriously, I take him very seriously indeed. He can be very dangerous – in fact, he can be a handful for anybody on his day.
“The trick with him is to ensure he doesn’t get into his comfort zone, which is when he’s at his most dangerous. But it’s hard to say how good he is yet. He’s tough and durable, that’s for sure. But he’s never fought a heavyweight like me, he’s never had that sort of calibre of fighter. I’ll dump him on his butt.”
For all the brashness of the prediction, Haye won’t make a prediction in which round that might happen but he is undeterred by the potential threat posed by Fury. “I’m not nervous stepping into the ring, why would I be?” he said.
“I’ve done this before. It’s a bit like you as a journalist, you were probably nervous doing your first interview but, as you do it more, the nerves go. OK, he’s a big guy but I’ve fought bigger. Nikolai Valuev was a monster in comparison and I did that ok. So there’s now reason for me to be nervous against Tyson Fury.”
Sparring with the best
Part of that is down to the sparring partners that Haye has pitted himself against in recent weeks. The stand-out candidate has been Deontay Wilder, a highly regarded American heavyweight with 29 professional fights and the same number of knock-outs to his name. Plus there is Mariusz Wach, who took Klitschko the distance in Germany last year.
“My view on sparring is different to others, for me it’s punching, and being punched,” he said. “Deontay Wilder is definitely a heavy-handed young man. The aim of my sparring is to make that harder than the fight, to ensure I’ve faced tougher than I’m going to face against Fury. With the sparring partners that I’ve picked, I’ve got the perfect mix of guys trying to mow me down.”
In the days remaining up until the fight on September 28, there will be the usual verbal sparring between Haye and Fury, as there was when the fight was originally unveiled. Haye admits it sometimes veers on the side of pantomime but he is not unduly concerned. He said: “I quite like it really, it’s good fun, coming up with stuff off the cuff, berating him for something he’s wearing. It’s noise really but I like the noise.”
But once he is called into the ring for the fight in Manchester, it will be back to the serious business of the fight and working out a way to unpick Fury with immediacy. “I love the tactics, it’s like a chess game,” concludes Haye, “and it’ll be more fun and games with him.”
Losing to Klitschko wrecked his plans to retire at the top but Haye is out to prove he’s still got what it takes to be boxing’s main man.
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