I think this could have been a really good fight. I imagine Haye would have come out fast and aggressive, throwing big shots early which would have forced Frank to hold his feet and fire back. Neither man had great stamina so I could see a real firefight. Bruno's power was massively overrated while Haye could really hit. I see Haye winning by TKO in 4 but may have to get off the deck himself at some point.
But Haye didn’t have that many fights did he? He went from winning the European title to being WBC/WBA/WBO champion in a very short space of time. By the end of 2008 he was a heavyweight. He was never going to hang around at cruiser for long. Not only was he massive at the weight but clearly all the serious cash to be made was at heavy. So whilst ‘clean up’ might be strong he still beat Mormeck for the Ring title and then battered Maccarinelli to unify. He left cruiser undoubtedly the best in the world at the weight.
Yeah. He was Ring, WBA, WBC and WBO champion and IIRC Mormeck was stripped of the IBF. He did more at cruiserwwight than Tyson Fury has done as a heavyweight, how about that for perspective...
I disagree with that, unless we're treating belts as everything and disregarding who they actually beat. Fury: W12 Klitschko D12 Wilder (most felt Fury won) W12, KO10 Chisora Haye: KO8 Mormeck KO2 Enzo KO9 Fragomeni Klitschko is obviously in a completely different stratosphere to Mormeck, and likewise Wilder to Enzo. Fragomeni may or may not be a higher level than Chisora, but don't think there's much in it either way. I don't think there's a need to go deeper down the resume, but it's not like being one of many people to demolish Gurov is that big a deal. Haye was the best cruiser in the world, and one of the most talented to ever fight in the division. There was little need for him to stick around, and virtually every fighter in his position would have chased the big bucks at heavyweight rather than trying to be a great cruiserweight. His resume is thin though at Cruiser, and a lot less than it's often inflated to be. There's no getting around that.
His resume is thin but largely because he didn’t have that many fights. He still beat the Ring recognised unified world champion in Mormeck and then battered Maccarinelli in a further unification. He was unquestionably the best cruiserweight in the world, in a way that Fury isn’t at heavyweight.
Don’t necessarily disagree with you but the fact is Haye beat the man at Cruiserweight, then unified and Fragomeni went on to become a world champion himself. Fury didn’t unify and Chisora is never going to be a world champ. But the point wasn’t to bash Fury, it was to give a bit of perspective to Haye’s career at cruiserweight.
Haye had his brains well and truly scrambled by a 40 year old Carl Thompson at Cruiser, that cannot be forgotten.
I don’t think that’s relevant tbh. It was a learning fight and he was well on top before completely gassing. The rest of his career obliterated that memory.
It’s part of his legacy. Fury plainly lost as a younger fighter to John McDermott. If he had deservedly had a loss on his record after that fight it doesn’t lessen the achievements later in his career.
Whilst I agree that it was a learning fight and part of his legacy I think it showed chinks in his armour that were to show later on, scared of a repeat he pretty much refused to engage in the biggest fight of his life. I think Haye had a fantastic career and, like most of us on here, I don't count anything after the Chisora fight as he was done after that, which was a real shame as Haye v Fury would have been a great fight.
I’d disagree, he engaged with fighters closer to his size. But if he got caught clean by Wlad he was getting knocked out so was always going to fight elusively. Wlad was just too good for him to get off offensively without getting nullified. He was too small. The toe stuff was embarrassing as was the performance after years of bravado but it didn’t stop him making more millions...
Agreed. He also didn’t ‘run’ from Valuev as some have said. He boxed a great fight against a guy who was about a hundred pounds heavier and a foot taller. I remember Claude Abrams’ scoring it a shutout and it was.
I'll never forget my mate trying to tell me haye was the best heavyweight in the division... Just Lol... Errrr, OK!