{"id":724593,"date":"2026-08-02T15:39:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T15:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/724593\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T15:39:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T15:39:08","slug":"david-haye-names-the-toughest-opponent-he-faced-i-dont-know-how-he-did-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/724593\/","title":{"rendered":"David Haye names the toughest opponent he faced: “I don’t know how he did it”"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Haye<\/a> has named the most durable man he ever faced, who took his best shots and somehow left the ring on his feet.<\/p>\n

The \u2018Hayemaker\u2019 was a dynamite puncher at both cruiser and heavyweight, with his speed and athleticism also contributing to him becoming a two-division world champion.<\/p>\n

He did so by dethroning Jean Marc Mormeck and Nikolai Valuev in 2007 and 2009, respectively, while claiming two of his signature wins in the process.<\/p>\n

Mormeck was considered a particularly dangerous and rugged champion, yet Haye nonetheless scored a seventh-round finish after climbing off the canvas.<\/p>\n

The Londoner then edged a split decision against Valuev<\/a>, a 7ft giant, who heard the final bell after getting put on unsteady legs in round 12.<\/p>\n

According to Haye, though, the toughest opponent he ever faced was Derek Chisora, who he stopped in round five of their heavyweight encounter in 2012.<\/p>\n

Their in-ring fight materialised following an infamous confrontation in Germany, where Chisora repeatedly cried \u201che glassed me!\u201d after Haye laid bare fists on his chin.<\/p>\n

Proceedings were then similarly one-sided as Haye dished out a punishing beatdown<\/a>, eventually scoring two knockdowns with a sustained fifth-round onslaught.<\/p>\n

Speaking with Sun Boxing<\/a>, the former world heavyweight champion gave immense credit to the remarkable chin of his former rival.<\/p>\n

\u201cDerek Chisora took some big shots. I was hitting him with shots that [fans] probably didn\u2019t even realise, but they were big, big shots.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe finished on his feet as well. I don\u2019t know anyone else that wouldn\u2019t be sleeping for 10 minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even at the age of 42, Chisora remains an active heavyweight and is coming off a split decision defeat to Deontay Wilder in April.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Haye has named the most durable man he ever faced, who took his best shots and somehow…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":724594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-724593","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\/724593","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=724593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/724594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=724593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=724593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=724593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}