On paper you’d have to favour AJ. Bigger man, more conventional boxing style. Haye made a lot of mistakes in the ring and left himself vulnerable.
I can see theoretically how the style of Haye is a nightmare for AJ. I agree completely. My point is that AJ was already a broken man by the time he moved to HW, and he didnt beat anyone of note up there. His career and reputation is based on prime performances at CW. Not on prime performances at HW. Those fights he had from 2005 to 2008 were his prime. He managed to roll back the years in that fight against Chisora though. How many times did he pull out of the fight against Fury due to injury? At least 3 times from memory. He simply wasnt fit enough to complete a camp under Booth once he moved up to HW and be anything like the fighter he was at CW.
You're making a mistake. You're talking about all the things which happened to Haye and how he pulled out and all the stuff. Thing is...it doesn't matter for a fantasy matchup between him and AJ. If we talk about such matchups like AJ vs. Haye or Ali vs. Usyk and all the fantasy bouts people are discussing here, we're just talking styles/clash of styles and how they would match up in an encounter between two guys. I do not care about Hayes injuries, about him pulling out of fights 100 times....i just talk styles in here if i talk about such matchups. It makes no sense to me to talk about injuries Haye had if we talk a AJ vs Haye bout. Whats the sense? If you compare two guys like that you always need to take the best possible version. Doesn't matter if its a CW Haye version. I agree with your point regarding Haye. Prime Haye was a CW, nevertheless he has beaten a couple of decent/solid HWs in Chisora and Valuev.
If you think of it, Haye’s the smaller worse version of AJ. Both have shaky chins and suspect stamina. AJ’s a lot more skilled though and has a huge size advantage so I have no idea why anyone’s picking Haye here.
