| 14 October 2011
Well David Haye, it's been... interesting. Fun sometimes too, but always interesting.
This being boxing, we must take all retirement announcements with a healthy serving of salt. But it sure looks like Haye meant it when he said he was going to retire at age 31, calling it quits yesterday right when he celebrated that exact birthday.
Along with his cruiserweight and heavyweight world titles, the Hayemaker takes with him the well-deserved reputation of being one of the sport's great modern talkers. He was certainly quotable, and his t-shirt that featured both Klitschkos literally losing their heads will go down in boxing history as one of the top ballsy/stupid/questionable gimmicks ever.
Sadly, anyone who sat through his actual fight with Wladimir Klitschko knows he couldn't back his words up with action. It wasn't for lack of trying, exactly, and he did make it the distance. He just wasn't any better equipped to deal with Wlad's unique combination of size and skills than any of the smaller challengers that came before him.
As far as his in-ring work, I was a bigger fan of Haye during his cruiserweight days. He always seemed to be walking the razor's edge between triumph and tragedy, as in his clash with Jean Marc Mormeck (who coincidentally will be the next man to fight Wlad) when he shook off a fourth-round knockdown to win by stoppage in the seventh. The Hayemaker was more than just hype at that weight - Haye could really bring the right hand.
Haye has said on more than one occasion that he wants to get out of boxing with his health and finances intact. He also reportedly has designs on going into acting, and you get the feeling his gift of gab means he may have a shot at succeeding.
The ironic part is that while it's doubtful Haye would have been hanging up the gloves if he had beaten Wlad (since Vitali would have been chomping at the bit to avenge the family honor), he'd always talked about winning that fight and retiring on top of the sport. Instead, it's the brothers that he'll always be linked with who have the chance to walk away without ever surrendering their belts.
But hey, at least he was responsible for this, and he never even had to suffer the dreaded "pizza face:"
