David Haye divides opinion like no other Boxer

One has to admire David Haye, if only for his honouring of the promise he made back when he was an amateur almost ten years ago. He has officially retired from boxing on his 31^st birthday.

Unfortunately for the Hayemaker, many people think this is the only bit of honour left in his body after listening to his pre- fight comments before his career defining fight with Wladimir Klitschko in July. At times they could be described as downright childish and made a lot of British boxing fans uncomfortable, questioning whether it was the right move in supporting their man when he appeared to be an arrogant hothead with no respect for his opponent.

Had it been just the extra pressure of the mega fight that brought this out of Haye, we might have let it slide. But other tasteless comments include calling 7ft 2 giant Nikolay Valuev ‘the ugliest man he had ever seen’ and calling the Audley Harrison fight more one sided than a gang rape. If Haye had been from across the pond, the public would have been close to pelting him with rotten tomatoes.

Added to the fact that come crunch time against Klitschko he produced one of the worst performances of his career and blamed it on a broken toe for a fortnight afterwards and it is seems incredible that Haye will have any admirers left.

But look beyond the loud mouth promotion and actually look at Haye’s entire boxing career and most boxing fans would recognise a true champion. To have unified an entire division, become a two-weight world champion and almost single-handily ignite some interest in a division that had been dragging it’s heals for half a decade deserves a lot of credit. And he did this all before his 30^th birthday.

Of course the methods he used to get the heavyweight division talked about again were questionable at best but it’s hard to criticise him for fighting what’s put in front of him, a man with a reported iron chin – who he knocked out – but who couldn’t knock out a chicken and a boxer living off a single achievement ten years ago whose reputation is now so low he has taken to a dance floor to earn money.

It would have been nice for him to have fought some of the boxers below the Klitschkos in the pecking order like Povetkin or Adamek – another cruiserweight turned heavyweight – to see how he would fare but Haye has said that if he did decide to carry on only a fight with Vitali would suffice.

It is a shame that the lasting image of David Haye will be him standing on a table incredulously pointing at his little right toe after his dismal display in Hamburg. But if one remembers his stunning knockouts of Alexander Gurov and Enzo Maccarinelli and his against the odds victory against Valuev he will be regarded as one of the best British fighters of the decade.

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