{"id":33376,"date":"2025-07-30T12:18:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T12:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/33376\/"},"modified":"2025-07-30T12:18:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T12:18:08","slug":"david-haye-names-the-only-fighter-that-would-beat-him-in-his-prime-he-would-smash-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/33376\/","title":{"rendered":"David Haye Names The Only Fighter That Would Beat Him In His Prime: “He Would Smash Me”"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Haye<\/a> is one of the best boxers the UK has produced.<\/p>\n

Although he struggled in his career with injuries, at his peak he was a fast, powerful fighter who held world championships in two weight classes \u2013 cruiserweight and heavyweight.<\/p>\n

Haye unified the cruiserweight division and won the Ring magazine and lineal titles before capturing the WBA heavyweight title.<\/p>\n

He beat the likes of Derek Chisora, Audley Harrison, Enzo Maccarinelli and the giant Nikolai Valuev but ended his career with a pair of back-to-back losses to Tony Bellow up in the banner division.<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking on Froch on Fighting<\/a>, Haye backed himself and his KO ability to better every cruiserweight in history bar one.<\/p>\n

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

This lead \u2018The Cobra\u2019 to ask if that included former undisputed cruiserweight turned two-time undisputed heavyweight boss Usyk.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah definitely, for sure. But I can see a version where he beats me, he out-fiddles me with the southpaw [stance]. He\u2019s super clever. I can see a version where I nail him with the right hand. If I catch him, I win the fight, if I don\u2019t catch him, I probably lose on points.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holyfield, Haye and Usyk are the only three men in the history of the sport to win world titles at both cruiserweight and heavyweight, with the American setting the bar back in the 1990s, Haye following and Usyk taking it one step further by becoming undisputed in both classes.<\/p>\n

Haye retired at 35 due to persistent injury troubles, while Usyk is 37 and could well continue fighting, with WBO mandatory challenger Joseph Parker likely next in line. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Haye is one of the best boxers the UK has produced. Although he struggled in his career…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-33376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}