Why didn't Haye fight Cunningham for cruiserweight undisputed?

It's quite simple. He didn't need to. Haye was the consensus #1 CW. And he moves up to HW for bigger fights. Not hard to get.

 

Yeah, would have been a good and interesting bout, but I don’t think there’s any duck conspiracy here… He moved from one of the most over looked divisions, to a popular division where he could get more money (and a better legacy)

 

Yeah, but still, that's because Haye leveraged his power and speed to maximum effect. Chisora has walked onto shots from some of the biggest HW punchers of his era and hardly moved. To knock out Chisora completely, you need elite power at HW. Vitali Klitschko and Usyk both couldn't put a dent in him, but Haye flatlined him, and was much smaller for a HW.

Johaneson, Fragomeni, and Mormeck all ended up losing by stoppage, though, in the end, and Abdoul, for all his limitations and journeymen status, had a cast-iron jaw; he only lost by stoppage once in 37 losses, and that was a hometown 12th-round stoppage against Krzysztof Wlodarczyk. Abdoul went the full 12 against Breidis, Gasiev, and Haye.

Haye was not indestructible, I'm not saying that for a second, but he was one of the most powerful cruiserweight punchers in history. I guess we'll never know if he'd have stopped Cunningham, but Haye stopped every single person he faced at cruiserweight, with the exception of Abdoul, and Thompson, of course. If JP Hernandez had Cunningham on the floor several times throughout their two fights, and arguably should have got the stoppage in the first round in their first fight (the ref give him a lot of leeway) then I think Haye definitely would've managed it.

 

I'm surprised Haye seems to have failed as a promoter. He did a helluva job promoting himself. More impressive than his actual career by far.

 

It's as simple as that

 

I agree. I'm always one who likes an undisputed/unified champ. Just doesn't always work out.

 

Those were exciting years of Boxing, sadly now there has been an obsession with getting an undisputed champ as the marketing or propaganda keeps drilling into us that there are too many belts for casuals to understand and there needs to be 1 champ.

Back then boxing was hot as big fights got made, belts mattered less. I’m sure I remember Erik or marco saying they don’t bother too much with belts any more and focus on the big fights. These days they would be crucified by the media and public for that as everyone instead seeks closure in an undisputed champ like they are casuals and find wbc, wba, ibf confusing.

a god example is Terence, several times undisputed but he’s not been in the big fights to get there.

 

Very true. The shenanigans between Thurman, Spence, Crawford, then Boots weren’t happening in De La Hoya / Mosley era and earlier…

 

I mean, if you are going to dig into Haye's stoppages, is it not fair to treat Ortiz the same?

While I don't deny Ortiz was a heavy puncher, there was something of a pattern to his opponent selection. These were the more known names in his run to Wilder:

Monte Barret was coming off a loss (retirement fight)
Bryant Jennings was coming off his first loss (lost all but one round to Klitschko)
Tony Thompson was coming off a loss (retirement fight)
Malik Scott goes the full 12 (retirement fight)
Dave Allen was coming off his first loss (lost all but one round to Whyte)

Not all that impressive when you dig past the headlines. But the guy could punch

 

Haye had a growing legion of British fans and pundits behind him who practically ignored the rest of the cruiserweight division after Haye defeated Mormeck and Maccarinelli, and spoke as if Haye had 'cleaned up' and was 'ready to take on Klitschko'. Comparisons to Evander Holyfield were made, etc.
It was all bollocks.

Yes, he ducked Cunningham's challenge.

 

I don't ever recall any demand for it.
Have was struggling badly to make weight.
He beat the unified champion and main man in Mormeck, which was the big one.
He said right after that fight that he was tight at the weight and moving up, but stayed for one more, being the big domestic dust up and unification with Enzo.
He instantly moved up straight after.

I am not sure why the thread introduction mentions Haye suffering a knockdown in his 6th fight to Mock?
Saying Haye lost to Thompson doesn't really tell the whole story in that Thompson was still world level and Haye had only had 10 fights when they fought. It was a big step up at the time. Cunningham in his 11th fight was in a four rounder against a journeyman who's record was 1-1-10, having lost his last 8.
Big difference

Have was the man at HW before he moved up
I don't recall a call for the Cunningham fight, but I do recall a call for the Enzo fight.

Cunningham was a really good CW but didn't really seem to get much attention at the time outside of Germany imo, which is a shame.
I remember doing a thread on it at the time as I thought he was a good champion

 

I don't think Cunningham was that much better than Mormeck, to be honest. He was also chinny and hit the canvas several times, even against Hernandez, who was good and quite underrated in my view, but definitely not a big puncher, and he had him on chicken legs more than once.

I think commercially Haye was eyeing up HW, he was always about the money, the risk reward ratio wasn't there for Cunningham, but in my view, if Hernandez could hurt Cunningham multiple times then Haye would've done it. I guess we'll never know, though.

 

Neet on his third account still trying to use whataboutism and selective statistics to try and prop up wilder and fury just under a different thread title.

pathetic