David Haye names hardest puncher he has faced, and it’s not Wladimir Klitschko or Derek Chisora
David Haye has shared the ring with several massive punchers, but none of them hit him harder than Monte Barrett. ‘The Hayemaker’ boxed Barrett at heavyweight in 2008 after unifying the WBA, WBC and WBO cruiserweight titles. GettyHaye blasted Barrett away inside five rounds[/caption] Haye decked Barrett four times en route to a one-sided fifth-round knockout win and barely took a clean shot from the American. However, the ones he absorbed left a lasting impression. “I remember him hitting me and being shocked at the difference in punch power between him and the cruiserweight,” Haye told Ring Magazine during their famous ‘Best I faced’ segment. “He was a very heavy-handed guy.” The answer is perhaps unsurprising given that Haye was essentially a blown-up cruiserweight at the time. Against Barrett, he weighed just 215lbs while his adversary was 11lbs heavier. As time went on, he grew into the division, although his career-heaviest weight of 227lbs is still considered small by modern standards. Despite being much smaller than most of his opponents, Haye went on to have a decent career at heavyweight. In 2009, he overcame a staggering 6in reach and 8in height difference to beat 7ft Russian giant Nikolai Valuev to become WBA heavyweight champion. He went on to defend the black and gold strap against John Ruiz and Audley Harrison before dropping it to Wladimir Klitschko in 2011. Klitschko barely put a foot wrong in a boxing clinic and rightly got his flowers from Haye, who insisted that he was the best boxer he faced alongside Valuev. AFPHaye lost to Klitschko in 2011[/caption] “Either Wladimir Klitschko or Valuev, one of those two. I’d love for them to have fought each other,” Haye added. “I’d love to have seen how Wladimir would have dealt with someone a lot bigger than himself. He always seemed to have the physical advantages over people. “It’s a mixture of the two, they’re the two most difficult, they had such physical advantages over me. I was able to implement my plan significantly better against Valuev. “If I fought Wladimir the same night I fought Valuev, I believe the result may have been different. I knew that wasn’t the best of me. “It’s very close between Wladimir and Valuev. It sounds crazy because I lost to one and beat one, but the fights were at different times in my life. AFPHaye bounced back from the Klitschko fight with a knockout victory over Chisora[/caption] “Lots of things were different before both of those fights. To be fair to both of them, I’d say 50-50.” After losing to Klitschko, Haye bounced back to knock out Derek Chisora in 2012. Injuries kept him out of the ring for the next four years, before he made a comeback in 2016, capped off by a pair of back-to-back stoppage losses to Tony Bellew. One month after their rematch, Haye hung up his gloves as a two-weight world champion with an impressive 28-4 record. Follow talkBOXING on social media talkBOXING is now on Twitter and Facebook. Follow us on social media for big breaking boxing news, exclusive interviews and the best bits from our talkBOXING YouTube show. Like our Facebook page HERE Follow us on Twitter HERE Sign up for our WhatsApp channel HERE
David Haye has shared the ring with several massive punchers, but none of them hit him harder than Monte Barrett.
‘The Hayemaker’ boxed Barrett at heavyweight in 2008 after unifying the WBA, WBC and WBO cruiserweight titles.
Haye decked Barrett four times en route to a one-sided fifth-round knockout win and barely took a clean shot from the American.
However, the ones he absorbed left a lasting impression.
“I remember him hitting me and being shocked at the difference in punch power between him and the cruiserweight,” Haye told Ring Magazine during their famous ‘Best I faced’ segment.
“He was a very heavy-handed guy.”
The answer is perhaps unsurprising given that Haye was essentially a blown-up cruiserweight at the time.
Against Barrett, he weighed just 215lbs while his adversary was 11lbs heavier.
As time went on, he grew into the division, although his career-heaviest weight of 227lbs is still considered small by modern standards.
Despite being much smaller than most of his opponents, Haye went on to have a decent career at heavyweight.
In 2009, he overcame a staggering 6in reach and 8in height difference to beat 7ft Russian giant Nikolai Valuev to become WBA heavyweight champion.
He went on to defend the black and gold strap against John Ruiz and Audley Harrison before dropping it to Wladimir Klitschko in 2011.
Klitschko barely put a foot wrong in a boxing clinic and rightly got his flowers from Haye, who insisted that he was the best boxer he faced alongside Valuev.
“Either Wladimir Klitschko or Valuev, one of those two. I’d love for them to have fought each other,” Haye added.
“I’d love to have seen how Wladimir would have dealt with someone a lot bigger than himself. He always seemed to have the physical advantages over people.
“It’s a mixture of the two, they’re the two most difficult, they had such physical advantages over me. I was able to implement my plan significantly better against Valuev.
“If I fought Wladimir the same night I fought Valuev, I believe the result may have been different. I knew that wasn’t the best of me.
“It’s very close between Wladimir and Valuev. It sounds crazy because I lost to one and beat one, but the fights were at different times in my life.
“Lots of things were different before both of those fights. To be fair to both of them, I’d say 50-50.”
After losing to Klitschko, Haye bounced back to knock out Derek Chisora in 2012.
Injuries kept him out of the ring for the next four years, before he made a comeback in 2016, capped off by a pair of back-to-back stoppage losses to Tony Bellew.
One month after their rematch, Haye hung up his gloves as a two-weight world champion with an impressive 28-4 record.
