David Haye has had his say on a fantasy fight between himself and Oleksandr Usyk, despite his era just finishing as the Ukrainian’s was taking off.
Like Usyk, Haye won titles at cruiserweight before moving up and finding more success in the top division, so it’s a fight that could have been made if the timing was right.
Haye, now retired, told iD Boxing he believes he would have enough in his locker to handle the current WBA, IBF, WBO and IBO Heavyweight champion if they had fought at the 200lb limit.
“Yeah. I’d like to believe in my prime, the night I fought Maccarinelli or Mormeck, the speed and the timing, and I always liked southpaws because my right hand landed. Watching Tony Bellew fight Usyk, Tony Bellew was controlling the fight whilst he was there. If he was younger, if he was fresher, he could have done a lot better.
If I put myself in that same fight with Usyk and Tony – take Tony out and put my prime in there – I think I’d have definitely got that guy out of there. Obviously the guy now is a different animal now at heavyweight, you know he’s put on some weight now, he’s had tremendous fights.”
He used Usyk’s fight with Derek Chisora – just his second contest at heavyweight – as an example, and went on to claim that he would make a better job of fighting ‘The Cat’ than Anthony Joshua did.
“His fight against Derek Chisora was a very close one. He scraped a majority victory there. When I fought Derek, I knocked him out in five rounds. So we’ve had only one similar opponent, and Tony Bellew. He knocked Tony Bellew out, Tony Bellew knocked me out twice. I’d have been confident going into a fight with him.
It’d have been tricky. It’d have been hard. But I would’ve found a way to get to him, and I wouldn’t have allowed some of the stuff that he does to these bigger heavyweights. The stuff that he does to Anthony Joshua, he wouldn’t have been able to do to me, cause I’m quicker than he is.”
Fans just missed out on this one, so will never have the chance to see ‘The Hayemaker’s theories proven right or wrong.