{"id":227122,"date":"2025-10-20T15:02:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T15:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/227122\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T15:02:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T15:02:08","slug":"he-would-smash-me-there-is-only-one-fighter-david-haye-says-would-beat-him-in-his-prime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/227122\/","title":{"rendered":"“He Would Smash Me”: There Is Only One Fighter David Haye Says Would Beat Him In His Prime"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Haye<\/a> has admitted that he thinks one fighter would have got the better of him even during his peak years.<\/p>\n

Londoner Haye is a former two-weight world champion who was loved for his explosive power and sharp reflexes inside the ring. In the cruiserweight division he unified three major titles and claimed lineal status in 2008, which ensured his place among the divisional greats.<\/p>\n

Never one to shy from a challenge, the Brit then stepped up to heavyweight, where he outclassed the 7 foot giant Nikolai Valuev to capture the WBA title<\/a> and join an elite group of fighters to win world championships in both divisions.<\/p>\n

He later fought the likes of Wladimir Klitschko and ended his career with back-to-back losses to Tony Bellew, albeit having struggled for several years with injuries.<\/p>\n

Despite his fearsome reputation, Haye has admitted, while speaking to Carl Froch on his YouTube channel,<\/a> that there\u2019s one modern heavyweight he\u2019d rather avoid, even during his peak.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my prime, I think I beat everyone except [Evander] Holyfield. He\u2019d have smashed me, no doubt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holyfield was known as \u2018The Real Deal\u2019 for a reason \u2013 he is the only four-time world heavyweight champion in boxing history, having been an Olympic bronze medalist in 1984.<\/p>\n

Holyfield first conquered the cruiserweight division and became undisputed champion before moving up to heavyweight. There, he defeated legends like Mike Tyson, George Foreman and Riddick Bowe<\/a> in an era-defining career.<\/p>\n

Renowned for his heart, granite chin and relentless fighting spirit, Holyfield retired from the sport as a true legend in 2011.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Haye has admitted that he thinks one fighter would have got the better of him even during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227123,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-227122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}