I never understood this. Haye had all the hype in the world, Fury had a big british media presence and was mouthing off in every interview. The leadups to their fight were huge. Fury was seen as clumsy and chinny at the time - a perfect target for Haye's power and speed. Most people feel that this Haye would even KO the former champion, Anthony Joshua: https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/haye-of-chisora-fight-vs-aj.727048/ What happened? I don't buy the vague injury excuses (especially the second one). Clearly Haye wanted no part of Fury. Had they sparred before? Did Haye have an idea of what Fury would go on to do?
I've written the most comprehensive piece on this: 2013 Haye vs 2013 Fury Hypothetical: Haye doesn’t pull out (“due to sustaining a cut that required six stitches”, allegedly inflicted by 21 year old Hrgovic) 7 days in advance of the much-anticipated fight (further cementing his reputation as a pullout merchant and a ducker, wasting a training camp, letting his team down, sacrificing a £5 million payday and the chance to beat Fury, as well as the option of an ultra-lucrative rematch if he was beaten while cut in a war, Haye’s alleged cut being a built-in excuse for losing) after getting verbally dominated and demoralised by Fury at the press conference. Haye split from his longtime trainer (2002-2014) Booth within a year of the pullout and retired but despite allegedly suffering "a career ending injury" in 2013 he returned to have two fights with cruiser titlist Bellew 3.5-4.5 years after the Fury pullout. - 32 vs 25 - 6’2 vs 6’7.5 - 210 lbs vs 254 lbs - Former cruiserweight and heavyweight titlist vs future heavyweight champion - Beat Chisora and Valuev vs beat Chisora and Cunningham (who Haye also ducked, despite that fight conferring the undisputed cruiserweight championship) - Schooled by Wlad 2 years prior vs schooled Wlad 2 years later - 26-2 (lost to C. Thompson by KO5 and Wlad 10-2) vs 21-0 - 1 win streak vs 21 win streak - Inactive in the previous 14 months, appearances on “I’m a Celebrity”, 10’s of millions in the bank and a playboy lifestyle vs four fights in the previous 17 months, if a millionaire then only just and the most motivated he’d ever been - Having originally planned to retire before he was 31, Haye admitted concern about potentially “getting old overnight” at nearly 33 - Judging from the claims of a “Hrgovic-inflicted cut” and the subsequent (surprising, given Haye’s narcissism) admission about Wilder hurting him badly multiple times, Haye was getting the worst of it in sparring from good young tall heavyweights - Compounding this pullout-inducing demoralisation, Haye very likely got wind of rumours that Fury was dominating Cunningham in sparring, which Cunningham later all but admitted and according to Hatman Haye hadn’t been interested in fighting Fury prior to Fury’s war with Cunningham - Haye and his team found Fury very unpredictable and hard to gauge (although there was a significant degree of underestimation, especially of Fury’s durability and defence), whereas Haye was far more of a known quantity to Fury, who had been observing Haye since he was a teenager and seemed certain that he had Haye’s number Haye: “I’ve heard his press conferences and interviews in the past, when it wasn’t me sitting there, I found it hilarious. But when you’re sitting there and it’s directed at you, you’re thinking: ‘I really can’t be bothered to hear this." - 2013 Haye: “He’s never been in the ring with anyone like me, so you never know how he might respond. He may try and tuck up really tight and walk me down. He might just think ‘I don’t want to get anywhere near this guy’ and stand off me or he might come and try and knock me out of the ring. We’re unsure what he brings to the table at the highest level. I know what he does when he fights people that aren’t very good, we’ve all seen that but I’m not in that category, so I can’t expect him to do the same thing with me.” - 2013 Haye: “Is it still gonna be there? Am I going to get old overnight? A year is a long time in boxing. Most fighters have two or three fights in a year and I’ve had none.” - 2013 Haye: “Anyone with his dimensions could do someone with my dimensions a lot of damage if I get it wrong.” - 2013 Haye: “I’ve always known he (Fury) was good, very good.” - 2020 Haye: "I’ve sparred with Wilder, I’ve felt it. I know. His power is phenomenal. Even in 20-ounce gloves in the gym, he stuns everyone he spars with. He stunned me often. My haymaker is a hell of a right hand and I think I buzzed him once or twice. But nothing like he buzzed me. It’s scary what he can do to opponents in fights wearing 10-ounce gloves. For sure, he is the biggest puncher ever." - 2020 Cunningham: “In our fight Fury wasn’t all that, that’s why I didn’t pick him. Afterwards, yes, Fury is the full package, he has the jab, movement, power, defence. If you look at what Fury did after, it solidified who I was. His trainer, Peter Fury, wanted me in camp, which is very smart in order to get over that big punch, my speed and movement. His team saw in victory where they had made mistakes and they were conscious enough to fix it and that’s what makes Fury great, they’re evolving to be better all the time. He’s always learning, to be that tall and athletic is very dangerous for a man. He moves around like a middleweight.” - 2021"
TLDR: Haye knew Fury was very likely to beat him as a significant underdog and worried it would destroy his reputation. He'd never live it down, so he pulled out rather than have Fury knock him out and retire him.
I don't know if Haye really ducked Fury but he was badly plagued by injuries all his career and it cost him his career basically as we saw against Bellew.
Haye has mentioned recently that he would have taken an L so perhaps there was a seed of doubt back then.
Haye & chisora were similar in that they were both boisterous in front of anyone but quiet as church mice with Fury. The cowering wife beater Chisora even had to get don charles to talk for him at the press conference in 2014
Fury wasn't a PPV star back in 2013. Haye was a household name and it would have been a bad look for him to get demolished by some relatively unknown bloke who fought exclusively on box nation. The most high profile thing Fury has done back then was the time he punched himself in the face
Haye’s body was breaking down likely from holding an unnatural amount of weight and possibly from years of juicing. It’s not a coincidence that he got hurt against Bellew.
I remember having a conversation with a semi famous Liverpool boxer a few weeks before this fight, He told me that the stories coming out of the gym were Fury was taking some crazy sparring and just kept coming back for more and more, at the time i always thought Fury was a bit of a joke, Haye would slaughter him. He laughed at me and told me the I didn't have a clue, once you'd seen Fury in the gym, taking on everyone, being floored and just getting back up and continuing as if nothing happened. Haye had been told about this and knew he was going to be in trouble, so the excuses just kept coming, apparently he was happy to waste Fury's time dragging it on in the end.
