David Haye vs Frank Bruno

I agree mate, but once you’re over that 15 stone mark, you’re getting starched with a clean shot. As you know, prime Haye had serious speed and power. I’d lean towards Bruno personally due to the calibre of opposition he’d been in with. Haye’s best days were at cruiserweight, but he had the power to KO anyone.

 

How so ?

Power to KO anyone ? Who did he KO ? A shot stone old Ruiz and Barret ? Running from the Missing Link ? Starching local club fighter Chisora who never ever won a meaningful fight ? Running from glass chinned WK ?

Haye was the Heavyweight fraud of the decade..full stop......now at Cruiser he was decent.

 

Frank was as ponderous as anything. Haye might have nicked the win.

 

Met him a few times and in his prime he was much bigger than Haye.

 

Bruno on paper should be the winner. But I think Haye's a bad match up for him, because let's face it, Bruno 's defense was very poor, and he weren't particular quick. I wouldn't think it's the realm of possibilities that Haye does to Frank what he did to Chisora.

 

I agree with this. A part of me thought Bruno would just be too big but actually he wasn’t a giant so I give Haye more of a chance.

Bruno has the better CV as a heavyweight overall but h2h I think Haye troubles him. Frank had poor stamina and was slow. Klitshko struggled to pin him down so I think Bruno would too.

 

I’ve said previously that Haye’s career at heavyweight was all smoke and mirrors but....he could punch. I don’t really think much of your rating of Chisora, however, he’s got a solid chin on him and prior to Whyte splattering him, only Haye had managed it previously.

 

I think Haye stops Bruno quite early on, too fast and explosive for robotic Frank.

 

I'd give Bruno this one

 

To be fair to Haye he pretty much cleaned up at cruiser, then his heavyweight career was:

Warm up against Barrett
World title fight against Valuev
Mandatory against Ruiz
Nothing fight against Harrison
Unification against Klitschko
Non title fight against Chisora

He then effectively retired.

I think it’s important to remember what was happening and who was around at that stage. I remember people screaming that Haye was frantically avoiding Adamek (who I think he’d have easily beaten anyway.)

 

Haye late stoppage for me

 

I think pretty much cleaned up stems from the fact he had all but one belt and IIRC it was a bit of a Naseem Hamed scenario whereby he beat the man who had that belt but he was stripped before hand. He was as good as undisputed.

He could’ve beaten a couple of others but chose to move up to heavyweight instead.

Again, there were a lot of fights he could’ve taken at heavyweight, the main issue was his inactivity plus taking an easy payday against Audley. But would wins against a chagaev or povetkin really have impacted his legacy all that much?

For a fighter of his standing and achievements he didn’t have that many fights. And clearly pushed his body hard which meant he couldn’t fight as often.

He was one of Britain’s best but yes, his resume is quite thin in terms of big names.

 

For an example of what "cleaning up" the Cruiserweight division looks like, see what Holyfield or Usyk did.

Haye beat the consensus number 1, a top 5 guy at the time, and then jumped to heavyweight. He arguably accomplished less than Mormeck, Bell, Cunningham and Adamek. As Unforgiven demonstrated, he didn't fight many of the top contenders of the era.

His heavyweight run had an element of smoke and mirrors about it too. The belt he won had a distinct papier mache quality to it, and again he fought very few of the top contenders of the era.

That's not a knock on his considerable talents, and what he did achieve is certainly not to be sniffed at. Haye is one those fighters though who seems to benefit on here from record-padding revisionism.

 

A win against Povetkin would have significantly enhanced his legacy. Chagaev when he was undefeated would also have been one of his best wins, if not the best.

If he had stayed at cruiser and beat two or more of Bell, Adamek, Cunningham and Huck, I think he'd clearly be the #3 cruiser of all time.

Financially, he probably did the right thing as there wasn't much money at cruiser, and at heavy all the money was in the Klitschko fight. Those decisions he made, and possibly some bad luck as well, certainly knocked him down a bit from what could have been a genuine HOF career.

 

Coetzee had retired and took this fight for a reputed £250,000.