David Haye

David Haye
Statistics
Real name	David Haye
Nickname(s)	The Hayemaker
Rated at	Heavyweight
Height	191 cm (6 ft 3 in)
Reach	198 cm (78 in)
Nationality	British
Birth date	13 October 1980 (1980-10-13) (age 30)
Birth place	Bermondsey, London
Stance	Orthodox
Boxing record
Total fights	25
Wins	24
Wins by KO	22
Losses	1

Medal record
Competitor for  England
Men's boxing
World Amateur Championships
Silver	Belfast 2001	Heavyweight

David Deron Haye (born 13 October 1980 in Bermondsey, South London) is a British professional boxer, and current WBA World Heavyweight Champion.^[1]

Before joining the heavyweight division, Haye was the unified cruiserweight champion, holding the WBA, WBC, WBO and The Ring magazine cruiserweight titles after notable victories over Jean-Marc Mormeck and Enzo Maccarinelli. Haye's only professional loss to date was against Carl Thompson in 2004.

Haye won the WBA Heavyweight title with a decision over Nikolai Valuev, before defending the title against John Ruiz. Since then, there has been much speculation and anticipation concerning a possible bout with IBF, WBO and IBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko in the near future.

Professional career

Cruiserweight

Based in Bermondsey, London, England, Haye turned professional in December 2002, knocking out veteran Tony Booth in two rounds.

In 2003 he won 8 fights, 2 of which were in the USA, and won all by knockouts, the most notable being a 4th round KO of The Democratic Republic of Congo's Lolenga Mock where Haye had to come off the floor to win, and a 1st round KO of Tony Dowling where he picked up the English title.

Haye's fights were regularly seen on the BBC and his popularity began to grow in 2004, when he dispatched the 39-year-old ex-World champion "King" Arthur Williams in three rounds. However a match with 40-year-old ex-WBO champion Carl Thompson for the lightly regarded IBO belt proved disastrous. Early on Haye hit Thompson with everything in his arsenal, but late in the 5th round Thompson landed a series of punches to Haye's head. After further blows his corner threw in the towel, resulting in a TKO victory for Thompson.

Haye bounced back in December 2005, defeating Alexander Gurov for the EBU European title in just 45 seconds.

In January 2006, Haye signed a three year contract with former Lennox Lewis promoter Frank Maloney in order to further his world title ambitions. He retained his European title with defences against Lasse Johansen (TKO8), Ismail Abdoul (W12), and future WBC cruiserweight world champion Giacobbe Fragomeni (TKO9).

Haye's cameo at heavyweight resulted in an impressive 1st round KO win over Polish fighter Tomasz Bonin, who at the time was ranked No.11 by the WBC and only had one loss to his name.

Cruiserweight World titles

He challenged Jean-Marc Mormeck on 10 November 2007 for the WBA and WBC Cruiserweight titles. Haye defeated Mormeck with a TKO in the 7th round. Haye was knocked down in the 4th but later dropped Mormeck in 7th round with a clubbing right hand. Mormeck beat the count, but the referee stopped the bout as Mormeck was deemed to be unfit to continue. The victory confirmed Haye's arrival as a genuine world class fighter because Mormeck was ranked number one by The Ring magazine.

This was expected to be Haye's last fight in the cruiserweight division, win or lose. Haye himself has admitted that he 'struggles to make weight' and feels that he can only box at '70 or 80 per cent' of his potential as a cruiserweight.

David Haye and Enzo Maccarinelli met in an all-British world Cruiserweight title fight in the early hours of 9 March 2008. British trade paper Boxing News produced a pullout special on the match. Widely billed as the biggest all British bout since Chris Eubank met Nigel Benn, few pundits could decide who would walk away the victor. As both fighters are massive punchers with excellent KO records a short fight was predicted.^[3] Haye won the match in the 2nd round with a stunning TKO.

Commenting on the fight and of the prospect of working with Frank Warren, Maccarinelli's promoter again, Haye said "We thank Frank for sacrificing Maccarinelli, but we’d feel immense guilt if we took any more free money from Sports Network. I have a hard enough time sleeping at night as it is."^[2]

Haye immediately announced the victory as his last fight at cruiserweight. He moved up to heavyweight and declared live on Setanta Sports, that he will retire on the year of his 31st birthday declaring that he will have 3 years of heavyweight domination.^[4] On 12 May 2008, Haye vacated the WBC cruiserweight title.^[5]

Heavyweight

Haye has described the victory over Maccarinelli as "the final piece" in his cruiserweight jigsaw. Haye has repeatedly stated his intention to compete in the heavyweight division and emulate the success of Evander Holyfield.

Haye defeated heavyweight journeyman Monte "Two Gunz" Barrett at The O2 Arena in London on 15 November 2008, winning via TKO in the fifth round, after knocking Barrett down in the third round.^[6]

WBC Heavyweight Champion Vitali Klitschko confirmed he would defend his title in a fight with Haye to take place on 20 June 2009, at Stamford Bridge in London.^[7] Instead, his younger brother, IBF and WBO heavyweight world champion Wladimir Klitschko agreed to fight Haye the same date in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.^[8] However on 3 June 2009, Haye pulled out of the fight citing a back injury an injury most in the Klitschko camp found dubious. There was a suggestion that this fight might be rescheduled to later that summer, however Klitschko faced and beat Ruslan Chagaev on the original date that he was supposed to fight Haye for the IBF, WBO, IBO and Ring Magazine heavyweight title.

Haye was then scheduled to fight Vitali on September 12th in Germany but for the second time in two fights, Haye pulled out of a potential Klitschko fight due to issues concerning the contract to which furious Klitshcko manager Bernd Boente said. “All the excuses of adhesion contracts are complete rubbish as Haye had already signed the same contract for the fight against Wladimir in June, which also contained a usual rematch clause and a pure Klitschko option. And for that fight he also pulled out"

WBA Heavyweight champion

Haye then confirmed that he would meet the WBA champion Nikolay Valuev on 7 November in the Nuremberg Arena, Nuremberg, Germany with Haye's trainer Adam Booth claiming it was an easier fight than the Klitschko's, which Sky billed as David and Goliath.^[9] Apparently showing no fear of his 7 foot opponent, Haye said: ""He is the ugliest thing I have ever seen. I have watched Lord of the Rings and films with strange looking people, but for a human being to look like he does is pretty shocking."^[10]

Haye beat Valuev in a reserved display of accuracy and efficiency, countering Valuev's misses, jabbing and circling his much larger opponent, in the 2nd round Haye suffered a broken right hand^[11]. Haye came close to knocking down Valuev in the final round with a hard left hand, which made Valuev stumble. Although some thought his overall performance was not positive enough to earn him the title, a close majority decision was announced after twelve rounds, with scores of 116-112 (ITA), 116-112 (USA) and 114-114 (ESP).^[12] He is the first British boxer to win a heavyweight title since Lennox Lewis, and only the fifth Briton in history to win the title after Lewis, Bob Fitzsimmons, former WBC champion Frank Bruno, Herbie Hide (WBO) and Henry Akinwande (WBO). Haye is the first and currently only boxer in the history of the sport to be seven or more stone lighter than an opponent in a World title fight and still come out victorious.

On 3 April, Haye battered John Ruiz in his first title defence at the MEN Arena by TKO in the ninth round after knocking him down four times during the fight excluding a point deduction for hitting Ruiz on the back of his head in round one. This was only the second time Ruiz has been stopped, after being knocked out in round one by David Tua fourteen years prior to facing David Haye. After the fight, Haye immediately called on both Klitschko brothers, after claiming their recent challengers Eddie Chambers and Chris Arreola were "a disgrace to boxing."^[13]

It was confirmed on 7 September that Haye would fight Audley Harrison on 13 November, at the Manchester Evening News Arena.^[14]

Wladimir Klitschko challenge

The most anticipated fight is between Haye and one of the Klitschko brothers. In response to Haye's public statements, on 12 April, Wladimir Klitschko published on his Facebook page a video of him challenging Haye for the WBA title. In the video Klitschko says "On behalf of the boxing fans around the world, I'm officially calling you out to fight me. David, you can't run away from me forever, and you need to follow through with this fight to get respect. I'm ready -- what are you waiting for?".^[15]

Other information

He also was part of Great Britains gold medal winning team at Athens Olympics Haye attended Bacon's College in Bermondsey, South East London ^[16]

His training camp is based in Kyrenia, in the unrecognised state of "Northern Cyprus" and he has worn the "Northen Cyprus flag" on his shorts alongside the Flag of St. George and the Union Flag in the past.^[17] Married to Natasha, having a son named Cassius, Haye supports London football team Millwall.^[18]

Professional boxing record

24 Wins (22 Knockouts), 1 Defeat, 0 Draws
Result	Opponent	Date	Type	Round	Location	Notes
{{}}	Audley Harrison	13/11/2010
Win	John Ruiz	03/04/2010	TKO	9	MEN Arena, Manchester, England, UK	Retained WBA Heavyweight title
Win	Nikolai Valuev	07/11/2009	MD	12	Nuremberg Arena, Nuremberg, Germany	Won WBA Heavyweight title
Win	Monte Barrett	15/11/2008	TKO	5	The O2 arena, London, England, UK	Heavyweight fight
Win	Enzo Maccarinelli	08/03/2008	TKO	2	The O2 arena, London, England, UK	Defended WBC, WBA & Ring titles Won WBO Title
Win	Jean-Marc Mormeck	10/11/2007	TKO	7	Stade Marcel Cerdan, Paris, France	Won WBC, WBA & Ring Cruiserweight titles
Win	Tomasz Bonin	27/04/2007	TKO	1	Wembley Arena, Wembley, England, UK	First fight at Heavyweight
Win	Giacobbe Fragomeni	17/11/2006	TKO	9	York Hall, Bethnal Green, England, UK	Defended European (EBU) title, Won WBC eliminator title
Win	Ismail Abdoul	21/07/2006	UD	12	Leisure Centre, Altrincham, England, UK	Defended European (EBU) Title
Win	Lasse Johansen	24/03/2006	TKO	8	York Hall, Bethnal Green, England, UK	Defended European (EBU) title
Win	Alexander Gurov	16/12/2005	KO	1	Leisure Centre, Bracknell, England, UK	Won European (EBU) title
Win	Vincenzo Rossitto	14/10/2005	TKO	2	Leisure Centre, Huddersfield, England, UK
Win	Glen Kelly	04/03/2005	TKO	2	The Magna Centre, Rotherham, England, UK
Win	Garry Delaney	21/01/2005	TKO	3	Fountain Leisure Centre, Brentford, England, UK
Win	Valery Semishkur	10/12/2004	KO	1	Hillsborough Leisure Centre, Sheffield, England, UK
Lost	Carl Thompson	10/09/2004	TKO	5	Wembley Arena, Wembley, England, UK	IBO Cruiserweight Title On The Line
Win	Arthur Williams	12/05/2004	TKO	3	Rivermead Leisure Centre, Reading, England, UK
Win	Hastings Rasani	20/03/2004	TKO	1	Wembley Arena, Wembley, England, UK
Win	Tony Dowling	14/11/2003	TKO	1	York Hall, Bethnal Green, England, UK	Won English title
Win	Lolenga Mock	26/09/2003	TKO	4	Rivermead Leisure Centre, Reading, England, UK
Win	Greg Scott-Briggs	01/08/2003	KO	1	York Hall, Bethnal Green, England, UK
Win	Vance Winn	15/07/2003	TKO	1	Playboy Mansion, Beverly Hills, United States
Win	Phil Day	18/03/2003	TKO	2	Rivermead Leisure Centre, Reading, England
Win	Roger Bowden	04/03/2003	TKO	1	Seville Hotel, Miami Beach, United States
Win	Saber Zairi	24/01/2003	TKO	4	Ponds Forge Arena, Sheffield, England
Win	Tony Booth	08/12/2002	RTD	2	York Hall, Bethnal Green, England	Haye's professional debut

References

External links

• Professional boxing record for David Haye from BoxRec
• David Haye's MySpace
• David Haye News and Forum
• David Haye vs Monte Barrett
• South London Press article - 'Danny Watts a big help to David Haye'
• Haye vs Ruiz Live