Why did Haye decide to "retire" at 30?

He's simply not a very sharp guy. He thought if he earned 10 million he could retire. What he didn't know is that a one time paycheck of 10 million does *NOT* finance a lifetime of jetset lifestyle with 3 houses, 5 cars, yacht rentals and Caribbean vacations. You're broke after a few years without a new steady income stream.

Which is where Haye is at right now.

 

One thing for a Floyd Mayweather to play that card. Say what you will about his latter era but in sum he fought a ton of absolutely mint competition.

Haye burned bright but brief at cruiser. He fought Carl Thompson (and lost), and half a dozen good to very good names in the victory margin.

At heavy, you're limited to so-so fare in Barrett and Chisora. He fought & stopped a very shot Ruiz (so what?), fought & stopped a very shot Harrison (so what?), fought like a timid bunny against Klitschko and did sweet fuck all in the first eleven rounds against the far less dangerous Valuev.

Despite having been arguably the #1 cruiser of his era and moving up to claim a piece of the HW title, he faced very few legitimate challenges or risks to be resting on his laurels and declaring the getting-out to be good.

 

:deal i hope people take that in my mind, ive been saying this for years, but i dont like haye. his resume at heavy is very average. and when i see the head to head fantasy match ups with some having haye coming out on top, its a disgrace. :yep

haye vs holyfield at 200lbs and hw for example.

 

Cruiser is still an immature division, relatively, so we are in a weird place where there can be a huge parity gap between the #1 ATG in the division from two different eras that aren't that far apart.

Holyfield would murder Haye and it (and he, by the end) wouldn't be pretty. Savage, career-ending thrashing.

 

How about Holyfield vs Adamek or Gomez @190?

 

Chisora and Ruiz were good stoppage wins. Was too fast for both.

 

Sign me up!

(Holyfield wins)

 

Ruiz counted for nothing then.

Chisora and Barrett, decent scalps.

 

Yeah, if he and Povetkin had fought there would be no doubt as to who inherited the heavyweight throne after Klitschko was toppled. The winner of a hypothetical Povetkin vs. Haye match-up taking place in the last few years would trump Fury even after the Klitschko upset.

 

Nah, he's diversified enough in his revenue stream outside the ring that it shouldn't be an issue. (and benefits from living in the social media & reality TV age in which having a bit of s****om to kickstart those opportunities is much easier than in Holy's day, and his personality - though certainly not his talent - relative to Holy's lends itself more to widespread celebrity)

Between commentary, merch, and such alone he's probably fine. All the better if he jumps into the promotional game.

 

...and, you know, wearing condoms.

(if there is even indeed a base risk of pregnancy in whatsoever manner of consenting adult Haye chooses to do his coupling behind closed doors :think)