Heavyweight boxing is as punishing as the sport gets, but that hasn’t stopped many of the top dogs returning after an initial retirement.
Most notable is George Foreman, who had a decade away from the ring before staging a comeback that saw him become the division’s oldest champion in history at the age of 45 – a record he still holds to this day.
More recently, Vitali Klitschko retired only to return four years later and become champion once more, as did Tyson Fury, who spent three years out of the ring suffering from mental health issues and addiction before regaining the world title. David Haye stepped away from the sport in 2012 after a win over Derek Chisora but would return in 2016 to have four more fights.
The final two were losses to rival Tony Bellew in which Haye looked a shell of his former self due to injuries. In fact, he had many throughout his two-weight world title winning career that either hampered him during contests or saw them cancelled entirely.
Despite that, he is now considering a comeback at the age of 43. Speaking on the Up Front with Simon Jordan podcast, Haye paused the discussion about his retirement because his fighting chapter ‘is not fully closed.’
“It’s not fully closed. If I can get my lower legs to do what I know they can do, which they weren’t able to do since probably 2016 … I could beat a lot of the guys out there in the heavyweight division, for sure. 100% serious. I don’t want money, what I want is hopefully this computer game that I’m playing in my mind, if I can get my lower legs to do what they need to do, it then works its way up and I will be able to do the things that I need to do.
Haye said he was being realistic about who he may challenge if his body holds up.
“I’m not stupid enough to think that after all these years I can jump in against Anthony Joshua or any of those guys, I would get squashed. But, if I can go through training camps – I couldn’t do a twelve round fight camp, physically impossible right now – but I could do a camp for a six-rounder, eight-rounder for a certain type of opponent who I’d need certain types of sparring partners for.”
He then drew on Foreman’s campaign to cap off the discussion, at least for now.
“It happens in two years, a year and a half. It happens gradually. It would take me up to 45 – George Foreman was the heavyweight champion, he changed his style, he adapted stuff … If this lower leg can get to a position where I can do the training that’s required, why would you not? We’re all gonna die one day.”
What comes of the plans remains to be seen.
Another heavyweight making a return this year is Mike Tyson, who faces Jake Paul on November 15 – a controversial event due to the inactivity and 30-year age gap between the pair.
