I rate Haye above Marciano and Joe Louise but in par with Ali. Haye has an excellent amount of ATG fighters in his resume! I would say maybe an ATG #1 since Wlad and Vitaly are running scared from the Super H!
You guys are starting irritate me a little. Haye is fighting the best opponents that he can. Haye deserves credit that he signed to fight W. Klitschko. Haye wanted the fight postponed at TBD but Klitschko is the one who declined.
I know this isn't a serious thread but I'll rate his fights anyway: Barrett: An over-the-hill fighter who would easily be taken care of by any Top 20 Heavyweight. Valuev: The slowest World Champion you'll ever see. Haye did what he had to do (hit and run) but it made for truly awful viewing. Ruiz: A shot-to-death fighter that Haye managed to put away by repeatedly hitting him on the back of the head. Harrison: The most undeserving recipient of a world title shot in recent years. A joke of a fighter who has been a complete and utter disappointment as a professional. Wins over a couple of ****-poor prizefighter opponents and Mr. 15 losses Sprott resulted in a title shot. As expected, it was a joke of a fight. Harrison threw nothing and was KO'd after two and a half rounds of shite. He can fight Evander Holyfield or whoever he wants now, Haye will go down in history as the worst heavyweight champion of all time.
Valuev fight could of went either way on the score cards IMO, but to me valuev is under-rated, cause of the holyfield fight, but before the fight with holyfield he said he did not want to fight him, cause of holyfields age, an watching the fight, you could see him not engaging holyfield, his heart just wasn't up to beating a oldman. So valuev was best of hayes victorys, then ruiz, shot ruiz was, but it was a nice KO. Harrison fight was a joke, i mean harrison showed no heart in that fight. barrett, well hayes got droped by a shot barrett. So right now i have him at #5 in the division 1. wlad 2. vitali 3. chaguev 4. povetkin 5. valuev/hayes ---fight could of went either way, an it warranted a rematch.
Looking at David Hayes "legacy" Decent article looking at all his title fights. Rather amazing figures, the average age is 35 (including Cruiserweight) and they've gone 7-3 between them (the 5 of them since they fought Haye)
If he's fought no one, than how do you know he's a brilliant fighter? Brilliance must be proven against worthy opponents, not one's who are obviously selected to make him look good.
What about the Eastern European guy he fought at heavyweight before Mormeck? Began with 'b', won in 2 minutes. EDIT: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJJciMGe17k&feature=fvw[/ame]