Anthony Joshua versus David Haye would have been a huge all-British heavyweight clash, and now Carl Froch has weighed in on how it might have unfolded.
In his prime, Joshua was a KO specialist who ran through everyone he faced on his way to becoming a unified champion, including Charles Martin, Dillian Whyte, Alexander Povetkin and Wladimir Klitschko.
Haye, meanwhile, did the same in the cruiserweight division on his way to unifying the titles in 2008, and then moved up to beat Nikolai Valuev at heavyweight. He was hampered by injuries later in his career and retired after back-to-back losses to Tony Bellew in 2018.
Former super-middleweight champion Froch trained alongside ‘AJ’ for a number of years, and speaking on his own YouTube channel, Froch on Fighting, ‘The Cobra’ backed Joshua to get the win.
“I think AJ’s too big for him but a prime David Haye is very good. Explosive power, fast, brave as you like. He may have got to Anthony Joshua and started catching him.
“But AJ’s a big lump, and if you look at what AJ did to Klitschko – all right Klitschko was 42-years-old and had been sat on the sofa for eighteen months and came out of retirement virtually – he still flattened him. He climbed off the canvas at Wembley Stadium in front of 79,000 people and got the win.
“When you look at that fight and then look at David Haye versus Klitschko, Klitschko was just too big for him. He smothered him and leaned on him. As much as I think David Haye could iron out AJ, I just think AJ beats the Hayemaker cause he’s too big for him … That would be a good fight.”
Joshua has not held a world title since 2021 when he was beaten for the first time by Oleksandr Usyk, and was stopped last time out in September 2024 by IBF ruler Daniel Dubois, though he is set to return to the ring sometime soon.
