Amateur
Haye started his ambition and passion for boxing at old-school boxing gym Fitzroy Lodge Boxing Club, where he quickly impressed and confidently won his first amateur bouts.
In 1999, Haye participated at the world amateur championships in Houston, Texas, USA at light-heavyweight but was defeated by American Michael Simms early in the contest.
At the 2001 World Amateur Boxing Championships in Belfast, Northern Ireland he fought in the heavyweight 201 lb division where he beat world class Sebastian Köber to reach the final where he gave Cuban Odlanier Solís a standing eight before getting stopped by TKO (round 3) and taking the silver medal.
Professional career
Cruiserweight Based in Bermondsey, London, England, Haye turned professional in December 2002, aged 22, knocking out veteran Tony Booth in two rounds.
In 2003 he won 7 fights, 2 of which were in the USA, and won all by knockouts, the most notable being a 4th round KO of Denmark's Lolenga Mock where Haye had to come off the floor to win, and a 1st round KO of Tony Dowling.
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. A match with 40-year-old ex-WBO champion Carl Thompson for the IBO Cruiserweight Championship proved to further push Haye up the rankings. Early on Haye hit Thompson with numerous stiff jabs mixed with brutal body punches that badly hurt Thompson. The punches made Thompson slow down dramatically, and Haye began to attack Thompson relentlessly in the ensuing rounds. Haye continued to attack Thompson's body and head while avoiding most of the punches Thompson threw. In the fifth round, Thompson started to throw punches as he just tried to defend himself. With 7 seconds left in the round, Thompson landed two jabs followed by a straight right that knocked Haye out, defending his IBO Cruiserweight Championship.
Haye defeated his first challenger after the defeat, Estonian Valery Semishkur, by TKO in round 1. Haye's next would be against Garry Delaney. Delaney was out-classed by Haye throughout the fight, that ended in a third round TKO victory for Haye.
Following two more fights against Glen Kelly and Vincenzo Rossitto, Haye faced Alexander Gurov for the EBU Cruiserweight Championship. Haye overwhelmed Gurov, defeating him by knockout 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 continued to defend his EBU title against all comers, including Ismail Abdoul and future world champions Victor Emilio Ramirez, and Giacobbe Fragomeni.
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 Championships of the world. Mormeck's The Ring Championship was also on the line. Haye defeated Mormeck with a TKO in the 7th round, despite Haye being knocked down by Mormeck in the 4th. 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 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.
"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"
David Haye on the prospect of working with Sports Network again
Haye and Enzo Maccarinelli met in an all-British world Cruiserweight title fight in the early hours of 9 March 2008. Haye's WBA, WBC, and Ring belts were at stake, and Maccarinelli put up his WBO Cruiserweight Championship. 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. They were right, as Haye defeated Maccarinelli in the 2nd round by TKO. Commenting on the fight and of the prospect of working again with Frank Warren, Maccarinelli's promoter, 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."
Heavyweight
Haye has described the victory over Maccarinelli as "the final piece" in his cruiserweight jigsaw. Haye then defeated heavyweight Monte "Two Gunz" Barrett at The O2 Arena in London on 15 November 2008, winning via TKO in the fifth round.[4]
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. Instead, his younger brother, IBF and WBO heavyweight world champion Wladimir Klitschko agreed to fight Haye the same date in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. Haye pulled out of the fight claiming a back injury
WBA Heavyweight champion
Haye then confirmed that he would meet the WBA champion Nikolay Valuev on 7 November 2009 in the Nuremberg Arena, Nuremberg, Germany with Haye's trainer Adam Booth claiming it was a fight that Valuev wanted; it was billed as David and Goliath. 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."
Haye beat Valuev in a reserved display of accuracy and efficiency, countering Valuev's misses, jabbing and circling his much larger opponent.[9] Haye came close to knocking down Valuev in the final round with a hard left hand, which made Valuev stumble. Haye won with scores of 114-114 (ITA), 116-112 (USA) and 116-112 (ESP).[10] He is the first British boxer to win a world 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 stone or more lighter than an opponent in a World title fight and still come out victorious.
On 3 April 2010 Haye defeated John Ruiz in his first WBA title defence at the Manchester Evening News 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."
It was confirmed on 7 September 2010 that Haye would fight Audley Harrison on 13 November 2010 at the M.E.N. Arena. The press conference for the bout became heated, leading to the two fighters swearing at each other on live television. On 13 November 2010, Haye defeated Harrison with one minute, seven seconds remaining of the third round by TKO. Southpaw Harrison landed one jab during the entire fight. He staggered to his feet after being knocked down, only for Haye to immediately pounce right back on him, hitting him with another flurry of punches. The referee intervened and ended the bout.
Haye's plans to unify the heavyweight division took a major setback in January 2011 when it was revealed that Tomas Adamek would fight one of the Klitschko brothers in September 2011, before his planned retirement in October of that year. However Wladimir has claimed that he is prepared to face Haye in July. In April 2011, it was announced that Haye and Vladimir Klitschko had agreed to meet at the Imtech Arena in Hamburg on the 2nd July 2011.
Wladimir Klitschko vs. David Haye
Wladimir Klitschko versus David Haye is an upcoming heavyweight unification fight for the WBA, WBO, IBF, IBO and The Ring heavyweight titles. The fight is going to take place in Imtech Arena, Hamburg, Germany on 2 July 2011.
Retirement plans
Haye has had a long standing plan to retire early from the sport. After the Harrison fight Haye stated his plans to retire before he is 31 had not altered, saying "I will have achieved what I wanted to achieve - undisputed cruiserweight champion, unify the heavyweight division and then call it a day." As a fight with Wladimir Klitschko was mooted, but with his stated intention as retiring on his 31st birthday on 13 October 2011, Haye further stated that if it did not happen, "I'll just have to accept that becoming the WBA champion was enough and move on with my life. That'll be 20 years of getting punched in the face, which is a long enough time. I set my goals and achieved them so unifying the titles is the cherry on the cake but if it doesn't happen it wasn't meant to be and I've just got to get on with my life".
