David Haye: What Is His Legacy

So last week David Haye did what he said he would do all along and walked away from the sport on his 31^st birthday.

Apparently the “retire at 31” deadline was originally supposed to be a “retire at 30” but his trainer Adam Booth explained that they had moved it back by a year when it was obvious there were plenty of big fights out there for him.

And once you get past the jealousy of anyone retiring at 31 – five years younger than your correspondent – we can evaluate the legacy of the man.

His pro career began with a second round victory over Hull Cruiser Tony Booth at Bethnal Green back in 2002. But that in itself tells a story. Haye fought just 27 times in those nine years and that fact alone perhaps tells you that he was never “in love” with the game. It was just a business.

Perhaps he, more than most, was master strategist, who planned his career out in the minutest detail rather doing it because he had the hunger to do it.

It goes without saying that he was, on occasion a great fighter. Recovering from a loss to Carl Thompson in just his 11^th fight and going onto win the European Cruiserweight title with a devastating knockout of Alexander Gourov just five bouts later.

He won the world crown just after, beating Jean Marc Mormek on his home turf and, when he unified the crowns in his next fight, in a quickfire, yet brutal beating of Enzo Maccarinelli he enjoyed perhaps his proudest moment.

It was here though, that his problems arguably began. He moved to the Heavyweight division beat Monte Barrett, began saying stupid things about the Klitschko’s, had an offensive and ridiculous t-shirt made up depicting their severed heads and – with a fight against Viatali just days away he pulled out with a bad back (which probably owed more to the demise of Setanta than any injury.)

To be fair to Haye, of course, he pulled off the unthinkable and beat Valuev in 2009 to claim the WBA Belt, but the less said about the next two fights the better.

 Then the full stop on his career. His defining battle, supposedly, against Wlad. Some pretty shabby antics in the build up (one particularly cringe worthy episode on Ringside, when he wouldn’t go into the studio to talk with was Klitschko embarrassing). We all know what happened next. He was outclassed. He blamed his toe. He lost a lot of public support.

Ultimately, Haye doesn’t care whether I like him or not. He did, though, covert attention and notoriety and he got both - sometimes for the right reasons. He goes down in history as a two weight British Champion, but he won’t be especially missed.

And does anyone really believe this retirement isn’t just one more publicity stunt.

Look out for him in panto this Christmas and back into the ring in a couple of years when his acting career goes south – although there is some part of Haye that’s been acting all his life.