Fight by Fight: David Haye

[HomicideHenry]

One of the more thrilling fighters of the early 2000s was the brash talking Englishman with the movie star looks and tremendous overhand right that most simply did not see coming.

The only cruiserweight champion other than Evander Holyfield to ever win a version of the heavyweight title, The Hayemaker certainly was the media darling of the post Lennox Lewis era.

David Haye, 28-4 (26)
84-14 (44) in the amateurs



Prior to becoming a professional his greatest success was winning the silver medal in the World Amateur Boxing Championships, becoming the first British competitor to reach the finals. The video above is the last contest of David Haye's amateur career.



David Haye's professional boxing debut was against journeyman Tony Booth, 41-72-8. Considered a tough pick for a debut, Haye kayoed Booth in the second round. It must be noted that 10 days earlier Booth had dropped a four round decision to Roman Greenberg.



David Haye's second fight as a professional came against Saber Zairi, 3-1-0, who Haye stops in the fourth round.



David Hayes third fight as a professional was against journeyman Roger Bowden, 4-11-1. Not surprisingly David Haye won by knockout in the first round.



David Hayes 4th fight as a professional was against yet another journeyman, Phil Day whose record was 8-6-1. This time the knockout came in the second.



David Hayes 5th fight as a professional was against yet another journeyman, 6-13-2 Vance Winn. The knockout came in the first round.



David Hayes 6th fight as a professional was against yet another journeyman, Greg Scott Briggs who had a record of 15-26-0. Once more a first round knockout.



David Hayes 7th fight was a big step up in class against 21-6-1 Lolenga Mock. Haye was dropped in the second round but came back to knock out his opponent in the fourth round.



David Hayes eighth fight was against 10-5 Tony Dowling. The fight ended in the first round. This was for the BBBC Cruiserweight championship.



David Hayes 9th fight was against Hastings Rasani, 12-12-1, and it ended in the first round.



David Hayes 10th fight was against Arthur Williams, 38-10-1. It ended in the third round.



David Hayes 11th fight was against Carl Thompson, 32-6-0. A big step up in class, and retrospectively it is not hard to see why David Haye lost by knockout in the fifth round to the quality opponent. This was for the IBO cruiserweight title.

[HomicideHenry]

After losing to Carl Thompson it was back to the drawing board for David Haye, crushing 16-13-1 Valeri Semiskur. The win over the journeyman did little to convince critics however that David Haye wasn't a flawed cruiserweight.



31-9-0 Gary Delaney was a tougher test lasting into the third round, but still the criticism remained on David Haye.



But the second round knockout over 31-2-1 Glen Kelly, who previously went seven rounds with Roy Jones, helped rebuild his image.



To further cement his image, the second round knockout of 30-3-2 Vincenzo Rossitto made people see him as a bona fide cruiserweight.



37-4-1 Alexander Gurov was stopped in the first round for the EBU European Cruiserweight championship.



Undefeated 14-0-0 Lasse Johansen became the englishman's toughest challenge going into the 8th round of a scheduled 12.



27-9-1 Ismail Abdoul goes the full 12 rounds with David Haye, making him only one of two men to ever go the distance with him in his professional career.



21-0-0 Giacobbe Fragomeni goes 9 rounds out of 12. This would be the last defense David Haye would make of the EBU European Cruiserweight title.



37-1-0 Tomasz Bonin is the first heavyweight that David Haye competes against as a professional. Despite his record Bonin was certainly not world-class in ability or ranking. Regardless in impressive showing as David Haye knocks him out in the first round.

[HomicideHenry]

David Haye becomes World Cruiserweight champion by stopping Jean Marc Mormeck in the 7th round. Prior to this many people thought Mormeck to be too much for Haye, as he already been 2x champion in seven Championship contests.



The first and only defense of David Hayes Cruiserweight Championship, in a unifier against WBO cruiserweight champion Enzo Macrinelli. Nobody expected a first round blowout, but that is exactly what happened.



With essentially no other worlds to conquer in the Cruiserweight division David Haye decided to spearhead himself into a campaign against the Klitschko brothers, who had been putting a stranglehold on the heavyweight division since Lennox Lewis retired.

[HomicideHenry]

The acid test for David Haye as a heavyweight since leaving the cruiserweight division was against gateKeeper Monte Barrett. The fight was quite exciting, with David Haye coming out the winner by knockout in the fifth round. With that singular win David Haye was officially a top 10 contender.



Billed as David versus Goliath, the former cruiserweight champion took on his biggest challenge to date literally facing seven-foot-tall and three-hundred plus pound Nicolai Valuev the WBA title holder. The fight was not all that exciting with very little action going on until the last round when David Haye rocked the giant. By majority decision David Haye was the new WBA heavyweight champion and in the eyes of many was seen as a genuine threat to the Klitschko brothers.



If there was any doubt as to David Hayes credibility as a heavyweight he cemented his position by knocking out two-time WBA heavyweight champion John Ruiz in the 9th round in his first defense.



David Hayes second defense as heavyweight champion came pretty easy against Audley Harrison, who he knocked out in the third round.



After much trash talking back and forth David Haye got his chance to take on the younger of the two Klitschko brothers, Wladimir. The bad blood between the two men was quite obvious, with many people thinking that maybe David Haye got under the giant Ukrainian's skin.



Unfortunately for David Haye beating the Klitschko brothers was easier said than done, as it was quite obvious early on in the match that David Haye could not quite reach Klitschko's chin. A one-sided affair that left a bad taste in many people's mouths, David Haye would claim after the fight that he broke his toe which hampered his movements.



Nevertheless, the British boxing press gave David Haye the benefit of the doubt. Little did people realize that David Haye was beginning to pick up injuries more and more often and that his career was winding down.



An all British feud, that got extremely ugly in the buildup, David Haye managed to knock out Dereck Chisora in the 5th round.



And of course the fight that almost was but never came to be... Fury vs Haye... Retrospectively, because of David Hayes mounting injuries which ultimately prevented the fight from happening, there is a strong possibility that Tyson Fury at this point could have pulled off a win against David Haye. The Hayemaker would leave the sport of boxing for 4 years because of injuries.

[HomicideHenry]

David Haye returns after 4 years of inactivity to fight Mark De Mori, 30-1-2, knocking him out in the first round. This made many people believe that David Haye was fully capable of getting back to another crack at the heavyweight title. It's kind of bizarre but many people were highly critical of newly crowned heavyweight champion Tyson Fury and yet were die hard believers in David Haye.



29-0-0 Arnold Gjergjaj was another padded record heavyweight who David Haye knocks out in the second round. The match can be seen as nothing more than a stay busy contest.



In fact the only thing memorable about this fight that Haye had with Gjergjaj was that it was gate crashed by former heavyweight champion Shannon Briggs, who was campaigning to get a match with David Haye after failing to get a match with Wladimir Klitschko.

[HomicideHenry]

The last two matches of David Haye's career were against Tony Bellew, the cruiserweight champion of the world. Many people were still on the Haye train, believing he was still a fully capable heavyweight so when the match with Bellew became a reality very few people gave Bellew a chance to win.



David Haye was at the Bellew-Flores fight and support of his friend BJ Flores, who Haye essentially handed the cruiserweight division to after vacating the belts. Bellew won the fight by knockout in the fifth round, spotted Haye at ringside, and charged at him.



Seeing dollar signs far bigger than any freak show Shannon Briggs fight could have given him, David Haye pursued the contest. There was much hatred and animosity between the two men during the buildup, which was reminiscent of the kind of friction David Haye had with Dereck Chisora.



To the surprise of many David Haye lost the contest, but the majority of the sporting public excused the loss because Haye snapped his Achilles tendon during the fight. Up until that point David Haye was in control of the match.



Because so many people gave David Haye a pass for the first match, they were adamant that he would win the rematch after healing up. Nobody saw Bellew as being a legitimate winner.



The injury resurfaces in the rematch, but nowhere to the extent as the first match. Nevertheless Bellew catches David Haye in the fifth round and ends his career. Oddly enough in defeat one can argue that David Haye became more respected and admired than when he was winning.



Although Tony Bellew became a top rated heavyweight because of beating David Haye he never thought again as a heavyweight and would lose the cruiserweight title to Oleksandr Usyk.

Haye has become a rather successful promoter since leaving boxing as a competitor, even helping former rival Chisora try to rebuild his career. It's nice to see him more complimentary of former opponents and present fighters rather than being braggadocious, like the video above with Bellew.

[DrDuke]

His comeback was so unnecessary. Only helped bellend to cashout on crippled himself.

[Controversial]

His comeback was so unnecessary. Only helped bellend to cashout on crippled himself.

Not for Haye, he earn't millions. In some ways I don't blame him for getting as much money as possible for the less possible risk, it's a hard and dangerous career choice and you are a long time retired.

[margaret thatcher]

haye was an asbolutely massive uk hope to take over the division from the klits, he was hugely hyped in the lead up to the wlad fight, people were on board and really behind him, but then what happened in the rest of the career was pretty souring

[DrDuke]

haye was an asbolutely massive uk hope to take over the division from the klits, he was hugely hyped in the lead up to the wlad fight, people were on board and really behind him, but then what happened in the rest of the career was pretty souring

Yeah, I had a strong belief in Haye then. He clowed the circus tallman and put him away from the scene for good. He brought a bit of life to the division. Yet he wasn't ready for Wlad.

[Ruthless-RKO]

When did his injuries first begin?

[orbtastic]

Around the time his Setanta deal started to go to shit.

[Caractacus]

hey, you forgot to proceed his pro fights with the video of his amateur fights.

[HomicideHenry]

Retrospectively looking back on his career I'm not really all that surprised he came up short.

It seemed like he took the easiest avenue possible to get to the top of the cruiserweight division, and to the Klitschko fight.

Then again had he took a harder route his career might have ended earlier, because the injuries would have came faster.

I do remember when I was on ATGRADIO and predicting he would go the whole 12 rounds, but would lose to Klitschko.

David Haye's one of those guys who because of his personality and fighting style managed to get opportunities he otherwise wouldn't have gotten.

You can make a strong argument that he basically talked himself into getting the Klitschko fight, much like how Archie Moore talked himself into getting the Rocky Marciano fight.

Then again at that time there really wasn't anybody out there in the heavyweight division. It became such a dull and boring weight class, largely because there was no heavyweights either big enough or skilled enough to tackle the Klitschko brothers.

It was a bit reminiscent of James Toney and Roy Jones just a few years prior to Haye entering the heavyweight division. It caused a big buzz, and at that time the weight class desperately needed some excitement.

I think that is a large reason why so many people gave David Haye a pass for the broken toe excuse, etc--- because the division was that boring at that time. It wouldn't be until 2015 or so that the heavyweight division started to pick up and get better in quality.

hey, you forgot to proceed his pro fights with the video of his amateur fights.

I will re-edit the initial post and put up one or two of Haye's best amateur contests.

[HomicideHenry]

Beyond the Ring



David Haye speaking at the Oxford Union.



He appeared on the popular series, "I'm a Celebrity: Get Me Out of Here!"



"This is David Haye" documentary.

[Caractacus]

Sheeyatt-David Haye always sort of reminded me of the UK's Boxing version of "Vinny Barbarino.

[HomicideHenry]

David Haye "wins" an eight round exhibition match against his friend Joe Fournier. Haye, 40 years old, made reportedly more than £4 million for this event which was more than he received for the first Tony Bellew bout.



Ever the showman the former WBA heavyweight champion called out Tyson Fury, which ought to be taken as nothing more than an old lion roaring just for laughs--- much like how John L. Sullivan did after knocking out Jim McCormick in two rounds in 1905 calling out Jim Jefferies afterwards.

[gp.]

David Haye "wins" an eight round exhibition match against his friend Joe Fournier. Haye, 40 years old, made reportedly more than £4 million for this event which was more than he received for the first Tony Bellew bout.

I can't believe that figure for a moment. I didn't meet one person in reality who even mentioned this fight, and this is among people who were all discussing where to watch Joshua -Usyk last weekend. I would lay 100 pounds to a pound that 80% of British people interested in sport didn't know it had happened and couldn't tell you who or what Joe Fournier was.

[margaret thatcher]

joe fournier is provably a massive liar

[boxing_rob]

I put this on the best cruiserweight/heavyweight champ thread in the British forum but maybe it's more appropriate here. Just thinking about how Haye's career looks in retrospective if he takes the Cunningham fight straight after Enzo to fully unify the division. No political barriers there, Cunningham wasn't a huge star and was happy to be the away fighter to get those slightly bigger pay cheques.

And also if he goes for broke against Klitschko instead of playing it safe. He may well have been wiped out trying to do it, but you just imagine it could have been a very different fight if Klitschko felt that power early on. Instead we're left wondering. As it happened, even if he'd won, his body was already breaking down. It wouldn't have been a long reign, that's for sure.

Great thread by the way, nice to see some of those early fights again. I remember watching them on the BBC!