Haye is underrated. Its easy to forget that whilst Wladimir won, he had to best at his very best to beat Haye. Haye got the best out of Wladimir. Haye didn't do anything offensively, so managed to go the distance, now I dont know if we would be left with such a rosy perception had Haye been more aggressive, cause he might not of made Wladimir miss as much, or of seen the final bell, he might of got knocked out and left us thinking, see, I told ya he wasn't as good as his fans were making out, so even though I think he performed well in the fight, I still guard against going over the top because he was so inactive. Its easier to survive when you accept defeat, than it is not to get knocked out trying to win, that said I'm willing to give Haye the benefit of the doubt and say he might not be on the Klits level, but he's probably on the level just below, that said, he shouldn't get a free pass from proving himself against the likes of Povetkin, Adamek, Arreola, etc etc, cause the cold hard truth is, he lost to Wladimir, and he has! only beat slow methodical guys like Harrison, Valuev, he's never really fought a live HW Wladimir aside. All in all I would say underrated.
He's no Great by any means, but I'd say on the whole his abilities are getting largely underated right now. That is in total contrast to how he was rated pre-Wlad, even though, his big mouth aside, he fared fairly well on the day when compared to many opponents. Somewhere between how badly he is rated today, and how he was thought of pre-Wlad fight; sits the truth.
The problem is that when you pad your record with the likes of Harrison, then run around the ring like bambi on ice throwing next to nothing in the biggest fight of your career it does leave you open to more perceptive than factual rating in the eyes of fans. Going the distance fighting like that doesn't really give you much kudos, if you take a pasting and survive then perhaps..... but David saw £££ signs rather than openings to punch in that fight, then started whining about his toe. Dickhead. If he'd beaten some of Povetkin, Arreola, Chambers etc you'd have to give him some sort of rating. As it is, he was a decent cruiserweight who moved up for the money and didn't really beat anyone. Those are the cold, hard facts.
Outside the Klitschkos I think Haye has shown he would be favoured over any other fighter in the division, no matter how heavy they are.
Overrated IMO. I always said look at the resume of David Haye at HW before you round saying hes going to knock Wlad out. He has a decent skill set but was never a world beater like some made him out to be. I mean dethrone the K'Brothers? He didn't even come close.
He WAS! overrated, he is now underrated. What used to annoy me, was when fans used to say he would beat Peter, Solis, Chambers, Arreola, Adamek, Povetkin. I used to think, based on what, fighting Valuev, Harrison, and Barrett? Sure you can make a case that Haye's style would trouble them, but you have to actually go out there and prove! it, and with Haye's durability, who knows whether one of those guys would of been able to soak up his power and drag him into deep water, I mean it aint like that aint happened to Haye before (Thompson, Solis in the amateurs), albeit Haye has improved a since then, and when you have only fought guys like Valuev, Harrison, its not really a barometer to make a statement like that imo.
Dont think so really. Most knowledgeable and unbiased boxing fans were aware of Hayes abilities and limitations and picked him to lose against Wlad. However, I was surprised at the manner of the defeat and the fact that he didnt really seem to have a real go. He is still probably the 3rd or 4th best heavyweight there is and was a two weight world champ in what was a poor era.
Overrated. Running from your opponent for 12 rounds is not very impressive and does not require world class skill. Haye showed good reflex speed and good upper body movement. Nothing more. He's a good publicist. He's athletic, but not disciplined like Holyfield (who executes perfectly). He's a mama's boy who has a feeling of self-entitlement. He is talking now like a person who has extricated himself from the reality of his performance against Wladimir. He lived in that reality for a few weeks after that fight. You could see it in his manner and hear it in what he had to say. Now, he is back to his delusional self. He is no Roy Jones. No Pacquiao. No Robinson. No Hamed. No Cooper. No Klitschko. He'll have you believing he really beat Wlad. He maybe believes that himself now. What he is is maybe the most despised fighter in the history of boxing. He's now saying that he is the most popular heavyweight. If that means the heavyweight that more people want to see get beaten into a coma than ever before, then he's probably right.
He didn't run around though, he ran against Valuev, he didn't run as such against Wlad. He often stood in front of him with his arms down by his side. He threw very little of note accepted, but neither did Wlad.
On the whole he didn't run. Since when was standing there in front of your opponent with your arms by your side classed as running?!? There is far more than plenty to have a go at Haye about without making things up. Maybe the fact that folk have to make things up about his performance against Wlad says a lot. No ones saying he did amazingly well, he simply didn't, but let's not make up what he didn't do. Sure, he most certainly didn't engage as much as he should have, there's no doubt about that, but neither did Wlad to be fair. Please get a grip. He may well be as annoying as hell, but I'm more than totally certain that there are greater boxing villains in the history of boxing, in fact to state Haye is the most despised boxer ever is an insult to them!!
Not a b ad lightheavy but a thief at heavyweight anyone who pays to watch him at heavy do not know anything about boxing.