David Haye said back in 2016, when beginning the reconvening of his career following a four-year hiatus from the ring. That his goal upon his return was to once again be the world heavyweight champion.
Fast forward two years down the road, the heavyweight picture has very much changed. Four of the major world heavyweight titles are held by Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder.
They are believed to be on a collision course of there own with negotiations heating up over a potential unification showdown.
But from ‘The Hayemaker’s point of view, he says targeting either of the current champions is dependent solely on the performance he puts together this Saturday night.
“Fighting Joshua or Wilder solely depends on how I look,” Haye said.
“One hundred percent it’s look good or goodnight. A win isn’t good enough.”
“It’s good enough to make me feel better about myself and make me feel that I haven’t ended my career on a loss.”
Haye also shared that losing affects him very much and he stressed the need to retire following a ‘glorious night.’
“It has never been the plan, to end my career with a loss, that’s why the Klitschko one didn’t sit well with me, I hate losing,” Haye said.
“I hate losing at anything, but to lose such a high-profile fight when you have given it all the big chat, it’s not the way to go out for me.
“The Klitschko fight haunted me for a while but I’ve forgotten about it now. I couldn’t retire that being my last effort.
“You get remembered for your last appearance a lot of the time and I want it to be a glorious night, not one of my worst nights.”
Haye suffered a debilitating achilles injury during the middle rounds of his first fight with Tony Bellew.
That injury was one in a long line of problems to plague the former 2-weight world champion as he approaches the twilight stage of his professional career.
Haye remains hopeful, however, there will be no repeat occurrences in this upcoming rematch. Haye compared the way he is feeling to a car having a thorough service.
“There are no worries because I’ve tested everything in the gym and sparring,” Haye said.
“Everything is fine. It’s eerily nice. It’s going, not too well, but very well and I just need to keep it this way.
“It’s like a car having a major service — new tyres, new clutch, oil change, it’s had everything revamped. It’s started up, ticks over well.
It’s looking good in practice and you’ve taken it around the block but you haven’t put it on the track yet.
“You think it should do well, it should get the chequered flag and it should be all right, although I thought the first fight was going to be all right and I was wrong there. But as far as my training has gone, it should be a very successful night.”
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