David Deron Haye

David Deron Haye (born 13 October 1980 in Lambeth, London) is an English professional boxer, and a former WBA World Heavyweight Champion.

Before joining the heavyweight division, Haye was the unified and lineal cruiserweight champion, holding the WBA, WBC, WBO and The Ring magazine cruiserweight titles after notable victories over Jean-Marc Mormeck and Enzo Maccarinelli. To date, Haye has currently lost to two fighters: Carl Thompson in 2004 and Wladimir Klitschko in 2011.
Haye won the WBA Heavyweight title with a majority decision over Nikolai Valuev in November 2009 and successfully defended it against John Ruiz and Audley Harrison in 2010, before losing the title to Wladimir Klitschko on July 2, 2011.

Haye started his ambition and passion for boxing at old-school boxing gym Fitzroy Lodge Boxing Club, where he quickly impressed and confidently won his first amateur bouts.
In 1999, Haye participated at the world amateur championships in Houston, Texas, USA at light-heavyweight but was defeated by American Michael Simms early in the contest.
At the 2001 World Amateur Boxing Championships in Belfast, Northern Ireland he fought in the heavyweight 201 lb division where he beat world class Sebastian Köber to reach the final where he gave Cuban Odlanier Solís a standing eight before getting stopped by TKO (round 3) and taking the silver medal.

Based in Bermondsey, London, England, Haye turned professional in December 2002, aged 22, knocking out veteran Tony Booth in two rounds.

In 2003 he won 7 fights, two of which include the only fights Haye has ever fought in the USA. He won all by knockout, the most notable being a 4th round KO of Denmark's Lolenga Mock where Haye had to come off the floor to win, and a 1st round KO of Tony Dowling.
Haye defeated his first challenger after the defeat, Estonian Valery Semishkur, by TKO in round 1. Haye's next would be against Garry Delaney. Delaney was out-classed by Haye throughout the fight, that ended in a third round TKO victory for Haye.

Following two more fights against Glen Kelly and Vincenzo Rossitto, Haye faced Alexander Gurov for the EBU Cruiserweight Championship. Haye overwhelmed Gurov, defeating him by knockout in just 45 seconds.

In January 2006, Haye signed a three year contract with former Lennox Lewis promoter Frank Maloney in order to further his world title ambitions. He continued to defend his EBU title against all comers, including Ismail Abdoul and future world champions Victor Emilio Ramirez, and Giacobbe Fragomeni.

Haye's cameo at heavyweight resulted in an impressive 1st round KO win over Polish fighter Tomasz Bonin, who at the time was ranked No.11 by the WBC and only had one loss to his name.

He challenged Jean-Marc Mormeck on 10 November 2007 for the WBA and WBC Cruiserweight Championships of the world. Mormeck's The Ring Championship was also on the line.
Haye and Enzo Maccarinelli met in an all-British world Cruiserweight title fight in the early hours of 9 March 2008. Haye's WBA, WBC, and Ring belts were at stake, and Maccarinelli put up his WBO Cruiserweight Championship.

Haye has described the victory over Maccarinelli as "the final piece" in his cruiserweight jigsaw. Haye then defeated heavyweight Monte "Two Gunz" Barrett at The O2 Arena in London on 15 November 2008, winning via TKO in the fifth round.

Haye then confirmed that he would meet the WBA champion Nikolay Valuev on 7 November 2009 in the Nuremberg Arena, Nuremberg, Germany with Haye's trainer Adam Booth claiming it was a fight that Valuev wanted; it was billed as David and Goliath. Haye said about Valuev: "He is the ugliest thing I have ever seen. I have watched Lord of the Rings and films with strange looking people, but for a human being to look like he does is pretty shocking."

Haye beat Valuev in a reserved display of accuracy and efficiency, countering Valuev's misses, jabbing and circling his much larger opponent.

Haye's plans to unify the heavyweight division took a major setback in January 2011 when it was revealed that Tomas Adamek would fight one of the Klitschko brothers in September 2011, before his planned retirement in October of that year. However, in April 2011, it was announced that Haye and Wladimir Klitschko had agreed to meet at the Imtech Arena in Hamburg on 2 July 2011.

Haye has had a long standing plan to retire early from the sport. After the Harrison fight Haye stated his plans to retire before he is 31 had not altered, saying "I will have achieved what I wanted to achieve - undisputed cruiserweight champion, unify the heavyweight division and then call it a day." As a fight with Wladimir Klitschko was mooted, but with his stated intention as retiring on his 31st birthday on 13 October 2011, Haye further stated that if it did not happen, "I'll just have to accept that becoming the WBA champion was enough and move on with my life. That'll be 20 years of getting punched in the face, which is a long enough time. I set my goals and achieved them so unifying the titles is the cherry on the cake but if it doesn't happen it wasn't meant to be and I've just got to get on with my life".