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Haye laughs off Harrison fight
Haye laughs off Harrison fight
DAVID Haye is loving his chance to live the schoolboy dream – but not, he says, for very much longer.
The WBA world heavyweight champion, a title that shot him from being a man unheralded beyond the confines of the sport of boxing to being one of the most instantly recognisable faces in Britain, was in Derby last night to meet the fans at a sportsmen's dinner at the Heritage Hotel.
It is fair to assume he is not completely uncomfortable with the attention an event like this brings.
Having worked so hard for so long to reach the peak, he deserves his chance to take deep breaths of the rarefied air of fame.
But Haye, who won the title against the Russian giant Nikolay Valuev in Nuremberg last November, said even he underestimated how much it would change his life.
"I knew it would be a bit different being heavyweight champion compared to when I was cruiserweight champion," he said.
"I thought it might double but it's probably increased 10 or 15-fold.
"Kids and old ladies know who you are. That's strange because I always thought boxing was a minority sport and only males who were big into boxing would know who the champion was.
"Even people in boxing didn't know my first world title fight at cruiserweight was on TV.
"I won the title, the biggest fight of my life, and nobody really knew about it.
"When you are heavyweight champion, you go on Jonathan Ross and Paul Grady and all these prime time TV shows and that gets you seen by everybody. That's nice.
"I've always dreamed of being world heavyweight champion and always believed one day I would and it's a reality now.
"When I was four or five, maybe younger than that, I used to watch the boxing with my mum and my dad and my uncle because they were big boxing fans. I knew then what the heavyweight title brought.
"When I was a kid at school, there was Mike Tyson and Frank Bruno and, watching these guys, I wanted to be the biggest, strongest guy out there.
"Every kid wants to be the hardest in the playground but the heavyweight champion was like the hardest in the world. There was nothing you could compare to that.
"I wanted to prove to everybody that I was the best and to be heavyweight champion, that was the way to prove it."
Now aged 29, Haye says he intends to stick to a promise he made to himself many years ago that he would not box beyond the age of 30 and that means he has his eyes on blockbuster fights only from here on.
That does not, he says, include an all-British showdown with former Olympic champion Audley Harrison, despite many reports to the contrary.
"I haven't talked to Audley's team, to be honest. I've read it in numerous newspapers but I don't take any notice of that.
"I looked on one of the boxing websites the other day and they even had a date for the fight. That made me laugh.
"At the moment, we're talking to the Klitschkos, trying to make that deal. Audley's just trying to get some headlines.
"If, by some miracle, I ended up in the same ring as him, I think everybody with half a brain cell would know what the result would be. I would go out there and mince him."
The target is either Vitali Klitschko, the WBC champion, or his brother Wladimir, the IBF and WBO champion, but Haye says he knows he will have to face both in time to get the full recognition he seeks.
"That's the plan," he added.
"The way I see it, I've got to beat both of them at some stage. They have different strengths and different assets, so I'd have to treat each fight differently but both are fighters I feel I could beat.
"Even if I was to beat both of them, there would be someone else. There always is.
"Then you'd have to beat him and there'd be another one coming through, no matter what you do.
"I've always said I would retire at the end of next year. I started boxing when I was 10 and said then I would retire from boxing when I was 30 and that's still the time restraint I've set myself.
"I know it's all been said before. I heard Oscar de la Hoya say a very similar thing and I heard that Bernard Hopkins swore to his mother on her death bed that he wouldn't box past the age of 40 and here he is, at 47 or so, and he's calling me out!
"So far, I've achieved all the goals I said I would and now I just need some big fights to stamp my place in boxing history in the next year and a bit.
"I've got to be very strategic about the next two or three fights I have."
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Originally Posted by Master
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