David Haye is a fighter who knows both Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua well. The former heavyweight champion of the world was scheduled to meet Fury on two occasions in 2013 before injury thwarted what would have been huge events.
His comeback three years later was planned with the aim to take on Joshua but two stoppage losses to Tony Bellew brought Haye’s illustrious career to an end.
With Fury and Joshua seemingly set to fight on August 14th in Saudi Arabia, members of the boxing community are providing their opinion on the huge unification clash and Haye is amongst that group.
A fighter who competed against the leading stars of his generation, Haye is fully aware of the heavyweight environment and he’s backing Joshua to do an impressive job.
“I like the dedication of Joshua and I think he has a good chance of winning it early,” revealed Haye to the Belfast Telegraph. “People think I’m crazy but that’s just the way I see it. I loved his fight against Wladimir Klitschko – he took his licks and got back up and showed the heart of a champion.
“I think it’s a great fight and I really see it being won by stoppage. I’m just so glad we’re so close to seeing it happen.”
Haye continued, “Joshua waded in in his first fight against Andy Ruiz Jr and learned a hard lesson. You’ve got to soften your man up and pick your punches – just because you have the ability to knock someone out doesn’t give you the divine right to do so.
“Tyson isn’t so much of a one-punch specialist. He puts his punches together and his style is that if you throw big looping shots at him, he’ll make you look silly. But AJ throws hard, compact punches and he puts them together well. I don’t see this fight going smoothly for Fury at all.”