Was Haye ever really a great HW?

[Cutthroat]

Why does this guy get a pass for going life and death with Valuev? It's sort of like his horrific performance that bout goes completely ignored, like it never happened.

In what reality can Joshua, Wilder, Fury, etc. struggle with a guy of that caliber and still be taken seriously?

His bout with Klitschko was extremely lackluster as well, Fury, Joshua, even Jennings put up a far better performances.

His resume at HW is very very very weak, Chisora, Valuev, and Ruiz? That's it? 1 of those bouts he arguably lost. Even against Bellew, he had 5 rounds to stop him, couldn't do it even with flush shots. His power is what made him special, and he couldn't even hurt a blown up cruiser? Yikes.

Great cruiser but I think Haye is another case of the rabid UK fanboys overrating a guy just because he fights out the UK.

We saw this recently with Whyte, and if Whyte can be THAT overrated by the UK fans you can sure as hell bet Haye could as well.

[_original_]

No, he's not a great Cruiser either.

[McNulty]

Haye was shít. Total poser!

[Larry the boss]

[Sparked_26]

He didn't seem to be able to overcome height and reach and weight disparities that occur at heavyweight.

Not surprising. In today's age he's not a heavyweight. That ambush style just doesn't seem to work against bigger men. Wlad could have kept safely out of range for about a week never mind 12 rounds

[alexguiness]

No, Haye was kind of a hype job.

The only success he had a HW was against B level guys (or worse, Harrison).

He was found out when he ducked Fury with the mystery 'cut' etc.

He was a decent CW, but not a great one either.

[Madison Boxing]

overrated heavyweight and i'd make a case for him being an overrated cruiserweight. who has he actually beat?

[tokon]

In a word . . . . . NO.

Otherwise, #6 has it about right!

[aretrospective]

I have watched Haye's pro career since the start & seen most of his fights. He was an excellent CW, and a lot of people who have become familiar with his latter career hence remember the Klitschko (toe & negative), Valuev (very litte action) & Harrison (farce) either don't know or have forgetten how exciting a fighter he was coming through the ranks.

The Carl Thompson loss was very exciting, the Fragomeni fight was a tough battle & the JM Mormeck KO was a good fight too. He always looked to KO his opponents at CW, and always did bar Ismail Abdoul if I remember rightly. Of his best wins, he KO'd Fragomeni when he was younger & on a hot streak, recovered from a knockdown to KO Mormeck while he was the no.1 CW and close to his best. His brutal KO of Enzo Maccarinelli (when he was also a CW belt holder) also seemed to send Enzo's career into a death spiral, certainly for a time.

As the thread regards his HW career I'll admit that his HW resume is somewhat patchier, despite being in the top 5 for several years. Some of his opponents & performances with the big men haven't been as impressive as they may have been and he's pulled out of fights on several occasions - including the WK fight where the TV company Setanta went bust and he developed a mysterious back injury. I actually had tickets for the fight already, so travelled to Cologne with friends & watched Klitschko vs Chagaev instead!

All in all a good HW I'd say, but his CW credentials are not in doubt as some would try to say

[club fighter]

I think Dillian Shyte could beat him.

.....plus, he really sucks at talking trash, sounds like James Bond on crack.