Needing little introduction, David ‘The Hayemaker’ Haye currently stands as the hottest cruiserweight-turned-heavyweight commodity since Evander ‘The Real Deal’ Holyfield.
Boasting the hand and foot speed of a middleweight and the power of a Mack truck, Haye scooped and unified all the major world cruiserweight titles within an explosive four-month period, before venturing to heavyweight and capturing the WBA world heavyweight championship.
A former world amateur champion as a heavyweight, Haye began his professional career as a 190 lb cruiserweight in December 2002. Blessed with a knack of ending fights in brutal fashion and intent on taking frowned-upon risks, ‘The Hayemaker’ quickly gained a reputation as a fan’s favourite.
In only his 10th pro bout, Haye tackled dangerous former IBF champion ‘King’ Arthur Williams. Former WBO champion Carl Thompson followed in his 11th fight. A shot at hard-hitting European champ Alexander Gurov arrived in Haye’s 16th contest. It was a pattern of risk-seeking that would continue right up until Haye’s eventual world title shot arrived.
“I never wanted to be protected as a fighter,” explains Haye. “It was always the intention of Adam (Booth, trainer/manager) and I to remain completely in charge of our destiny at all times. I wanted to take risks and do things the proper way. I didn’t want to hang around at domestic level for a decade and not learn anything about myself.
"I didn’t want to pick up some KFC title and call myself a world champion, knowing deep down I wasn’t. It’s better to take a risk and fail – finding something out about yourself along the way – than to never have taken the risk at all. This is something I’ll be looking to get across to all the boxers I work alongside at Hayemaker.”
Having defended the European cruiserweight title three times - the last of which was a WBC title eliminator against Giacobbe Fragomeni – Haye risked reputation, dubious decisions and the very real possibility of defeat against WBC and WBA cruiserweight champion Jean-Marc Mormeck in Paris, France.
While many fighters would have shirked such an odds-against opportunity, Haye relished it. In November 2007, Haye dramatically and compellingly knocked out the feared Mormeck in seven rounds.
As well as seizing the Frenchman’s WBC and WBA belts, Haye was also crowned ‘The Ring’ magazine’s champion, an accolade that emphatically announced Haye as numero uno at 200 lbs.
“Stylistically, it was always going to be a tricky fight,” reflects Haye, arguably the hardest pound-for-pound puncher in boxing today. “Mormeck was The Man – the best cruiserweight in the world – and he had the perfect style to give me problems. Not only that but I had to travel to Levallois in Paris to do the job on a Don King show.
"None of that really bothered me, though. I knew as soon as he tasted ‘The Hayemaker’ the judges would not be needed. It was probably the best win of my career so far.”
Despite insisting that the Mormeck battle would be his last as a cruiserweight, Haye – ever the fan-pleaser – bowed to the nation’s pleas and accepted one final blockbuster at cruiserweight with long-time domestic rival and WBO titleholder Enzo Maccarinelli.
Billed beforehand as the biggest all-British showdown for 15 years and a genuine 50/50 contest, Haye made a mockery of such assertions as he swept aside his Welsh challenger in two frighteningly swift and one-sided rounds.
“I knew it was only a matter of turning up on time and sober against Maccarinelli and I would end up with my arm held aloft,” says Haye. “I was saying that beforehand and a lot of people thought I was joking – just giving them a funny line to use. They failed to realise that I was deadly serious.
"There was never a chance Enzo could have beaten me that night. He was ideal for me. He had the perfect style – tall, upright and chinny – and the perfect trainer, Enzo Calzaghe – loud, opinionated and useless. The more Maccarinelli believed what Enzo Calzaghe was telling him the easier my job became.”
Just as Holyfield stepped up to the heavyweight division and replicated his cruiserweight success amongst the big men, Haye aspired to do the same. Quickly causing a stir amid the heavyweight division’s key players, Haye looked to become the division’s most personable, charismatic, marketable and exhilarating addition since a young ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson came to the fore.
His November 2008 slugfest with Monte 'Two Gunz' Barrett signalled the arrival of Haye in the heavyweight division. Dropping the respected New Yorker five times in five rounds, Haye enthralled the o2 Arena crowd with a stunning fifth-round stoppage victory.
With the Barrett win acting as a sample of what Haye would bring the division, it wasn't long before a title shot arrived on the Londoner's lap. Despite seeing fights with the Klitschko brothers (Wladimir and Vitali) fall by the wayside, Haye instead found himself playing 'David' to WBA world champion Nikolai Valuev's 'Goliath' in November 2009. Haye tackled the 7-feet-2-inch, 23-stone Valuev in Nuremberg, Germany and, with the odds stacked against him, 'The Hayemaker' prevailed over the 12-round distance.
In a tactical and technical masterclass, Haye outboxed and outpointed Valuev, even wobbling 'The Beast' in the 12th and final round. It was the crowning moment of Haye's career to date and a win that saw him fulfill a life-long dream of lifting the world heavyweight title.
Now installed as a world heavyweight champion, Haye looks to replicate his success as a cruiserweight and unify the heavyweight titles.
His first step towards doing so arrived in April, as Haye defended his newly-acquired world heavyweight crown against number one challenger John Ruiz.
Haye locked horns with respected American Ruiz at Manchester's M.E.N Arena, and fight fans would witness four knockdowns, numerous cuts and an explosive demonstration of 'The Hayemaker' in action. The new champion floored and hurt Ruiz in the first 20 seconds of the bout, and then continued to batter and bloody the face of 'The Quiet Man' for a further eight and a half rounds.
Displaying frightening power and dazzling speed, Haye became only the second man to ever stop Ruiz, as he eventually chopped his challenger down in the ninth round. Dominating the contest from start to finish, Haye, at 222-pounds, seemed to be hitting harder and more consistently than ever.
With title victories over two heavyweights possessing perhaps the two best chins in the division, David Haye is well on his way to taking over the weight class. 'The Hayemaker's heavyweight reign of terror has only just begun...
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