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Recently crowned WBA heavyweight champion David ‘The Hayemaker’ Haye will be boxing’s sole representative when he battles it out with nine other British sports stars for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award on Sunday, December 13.
The 29-year-old Londoner lifted the world heavyweight title on November 14, the night he stunned 7-feet-2-inch Russian Nikolai Valuev over 12 tactical rounds in Nuremberg, Germany.
Conceding a whopping seven stone in weight and nearly a foot in height, Haye’s slaying of Valuev captured the imagination of the British public. He now looks to follow in the footsteps of former world super-middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe and grab the BBC’s end of year gong.
“I was over the moon when I found out I’d been nominated for the award,” said Haye, also the former world cruiserweight champion. “I always used to sit at home and watch the awards with my mum and dad and now I’ve been nominated for one.
“I remember seeing Lennox Lewis lift the main award a decade ago and also remember Evander Holyfield getting the overseas award. They are two of my all-time boxing heroes and now I could be about to experience what they went through.
Honoured to be included in Sunday’s line-up, Haye admits that his British boxing peers were unlucky not to be up for nomination alongside him.
“I think this has been a great year for British boxing, and one that has seen the arrival of the new breed,” added Haye.
“Carl Froch and Amir Khan were probably both unfortunate to miss out on being nominated, as they’ve both also been fantastic this year.
“Carl has twice defended his WBC world super-middleweight title and was involved in one of the best fights of the year against Jermain Taylor in April. He’s also flying the flag for Britain on the world stage and is tackling the best fighters in his division. Carl is a great ambassador for boxing in this country because he always looks to fight the best guys out there.
“Khan, meanwhile, has done tremendously well to bounce back from being knocked out 15 months ago. He’s completely changed his career around and has scored three big wins this year, against Marco Antonio Barrera, Andreas Kotelnik and Dmitriy Salita. Amir is now a WBA world welterweight champion. A little over a year ago, everybody had wrongly written him off.”
Haye was ringside on Saturday night (December 5) in Newcastle as Khan demolished mandatory challenger Salita in 76 seconds of the very first round. With three current world champions in buoyant mood, Haye believes next year is shaping up to be one of the best yet for British boxing.
“This time next year I think there’s a very good chance we could have three or four boxers up for the Sport’s Personality of the Year award,” admitted Haye.
“I’m planning on defending my world heavyweight title in 2010 and then knocking out both Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko in heavyweight blockbusters.
“Khan seems determined to be involved in some big fights in the United States and Froch will continue to dominate in his ‘Super Six World Boxing Classic’ tournament.
“I was also massively impressed with Kevin Mitchell’s performance on Saturday night. He seemed to use my win over Valuev as a blueprint and looked brilliant outboxing Breidis Prescott. I can see Mitchell also winning world title honours in the next few months.
“So long as we all keep winning, next year could be massive for British boxing. It would be nice to have a hat-trick of British boxers on the podium at next year’s award show.”
