David Haye is one of the most successful British fighters of the modern era.
The London-born fighter was known for his explosive power in the ring across two weight divisions. He first made history by becoming the first British boxer to unify the cruiserweight division when he picked up the WBA, WBC and WBO titles after knockout wins over the likes of Jean-Marc Mormeck, Enzo Maccarinelli and Tomasz Bonin, losing just once to Carl Thompson in 2004.
He then moved up to heavyweight, where he picked up the WBA title in 2009 after defeating the giant Nikolai Valuev in a landmark fight.
‘The Hayemaker,’ who recently named Muhammad Ali as the greatest heavyweight of all time, also beat John Ruiz, fellow Brit Audley Harrison and Derek Chisora in the banner division, though in 2011 he was dethroned by the long-ruling champion Wladimir Klitschko over 12 rounds.
Despite injury setbacks throughout his career, he had two final fights at heavyweight against Tony Bellew, and lost both, the first due to injury to his Achilles, which stopped him from being able to move around the ring. He retired for good in 2018.
Speaking on Froch on Fighting, Haye was asked about one fight he wish he’d had and selected the big brother of his former opponent, Wladimir.
“Vitali Klitschko. I really enjoyed his style. I fought Wladimir but he was very defensive, but Vitali came to fight and he would have given me the opportunities because he wanted to chin me where Wladimir wanted to beat me on points so that was the fight I always wanted.”
Vitali was WBO champion from 1999 to 2000 and held the WBC belt twice between 2004 and 2012 and won 15 world title fights, though lost to Lennox Lewis after bad cuts in Lewis’s final fight.
