Haye: “I’ll always have a suspect chin”
January 4th, 2010
By chris Williams: In a refreshing revelation from World Boxing Association heavyweight champion David Haye, he admits to having a chin problem in an article at GQ magazine, saying “I’ll always have a suspect chin, anyone who’s been down always will have.” It’s really good to see Haye owning up to his chin problem. Few boxers are open enough to admit when they have a weak chin. That’s why Haye’s bluntness about his own weaknesses is like a breath of fresh air to the heavyweight division.
Haye was knocked down by cruiserweight Jean Marc Mormeck and Lolenga Mock, a super middleweight. In Haye’s bout with the light-hitting 38-year-old Monte Barrett in November 2008, Haye appeared to be knocked down from a left hand from Barrett. However, the referee ruled it a slip, but it looked to me like Haye was caught flush with a left to the head as he was moving forward.
While Haye was down, Barrett added another left hand to the head, which didn’t look like all that big of a punch. But Haye got up after that, and then immediately went back down to a knee and stayed in that position for a considerable amount of time. Was Haye badly hurt by one of those left hands from Barrett? I don’t know but it didn’t look good the way Haye needed a lot of time to get back up. Of course, this is neither here nor there, because the referee ruled it a slip. I’ve seen the replay countless times and it still looks like a clean knockdown to me though.
In 2004, Haye was stopped in the 5th round by 40-year-old Carl Thompson. Haye came out fast in that fight, unloading his entire arsenal and expecting a knockout. However, the veteran Thompson calmly took Haye’s biggest shots and by the 4th round, he began to dominate the exhausted Haye, who ended up getting dropped and stopped by Thompson in the fight.
Haye says “I realized talent can only get you so far. I’d had 10 easy fights before then and stopped them all. After a while you wouldn’t bother training. Now I have more hunger.” Let’s hope that hunger is all that it takes, because Haye is defending his title in May against former heavyweight champion John Ruiz, and you can expect that Haye is going to be catching some big shots in that fight.
Ruiz may not be a big puncher like some of the more powerful heavyweights in the division like the Klitschko brothers, but he hits hard enough to take out a heavyweight with a history of being knocked down. I’d say that Ruiz hits as hard as cruiserweight Carl Thompson. If Haye tries to come after Ruiz all out looking for a knockout like he did against Thompson, we may see Ruiz shock the world and capture another heavyweight title.
Tags: 23 Responses to “Haye: “I’ll always have a suspect chin””
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this boxing news 24 is great way better than east side boxing
time 12.30 pm january 6 2010 to east side you done
TIME 10. 20am wednesday january 6 2010 all who are my friends on east side boxing come on over to boxing news 24 its better easier to comment
time9.50 am january 6 2010 good morning ravenous david haye will not fight either of the klitschkos
To me, all come down to physics & history…Haye has a history that shows a WEAK CHIN & –in physics—a small HEAD & NECK for a HW…
He will not SURVIVE a truly heavyweight attack…no WAY…NO…
Have you even seen the haye vs thompson fight,Haye wasnt starched by one powerfull shot,he was exhausted after throwing everything in the book at thompson and failed to take him out,it was a lack of experience not a dodgy chin on hayes behalf.
Tua is the only hard chin ever that no one can break it
VINBOY, maybe but I don’t think so. Ali took huge shots from much bigger punchers than Haye. Most of those he just absorbed. Just watch his ‘greatest fights’ and count the huge blows he took from the likes of Frazier, Liston, Foreman, Norton etc.
He usaly had to hold his opponent after he took the shot, but he took it.
If you’ve seen those fights you may even understand why I don’t see Ali as the greatest ever… remotely.
And you can’t tell me that Haye hits harder than Frazier, Liston or Foreman because that’s just nonsence. There are bigger hitters right now in the HW division. Don’t forget Haye has only 3 HW fights, 2 by KO against guys who got knocked out before Bonin even by Fraudley Harrisson! So there’s nothing to tell yet about his punching power. Looks impressive, but there are more guys with a lot more KO’s to their resume.
I still see Haye as a slighty weaker punching Herbie Hide.
time 2.10 pm tuesday january 5 2010 david haye over john ruiz
Barrett was on his ass five times before the ref stopped the fight. Haye slipped. Carl Thompson loss was in 2004 (6 years ago and god only knows how Carl Thompson survived that barrage)and as Haye said a blessing in disguise. It made him refocus and improve in all areas. One step back two steps forward. Sometimes like all things in life it takes a setback or a loss to make your stronger providing you learn from it.
I dont think Haye has a chin problem like as many think he has, has he ever been out cold? NO!
Yeah hes been down, and everytime risen to stop his opponent, aside from one defeat which is constantly brought up on this website.
Haye is a straight talkin fighter, many dont like it and dont like style. i think both are a much needed boost to a very bad heavyweight division.
Like I mentioned earlier… power to knock out your opponent before he knocks you out… like mentioned Hearns, but also Nigel Benn, Herbie Hide, Tommy Morrison etc. But only Hearns became a real great.
If you also have length, so a hard to reach chin like Wlad, Lewis then you can also become a legend in the HW division.
VINBOY: Ali had one of the toughest chins in history. He is put on his *ss a few times but that’s because he fought the best in a very strong period in the HW division (now called the golden age) He got hit by massive shots in almost all off his biggest fights that knocked almost anybody else clean out.
For the record, I’m no Ali fan at all… I think he relied too much on his massive chin and payd the price for it later on in his life.
We all know that styles makes fights BUT when guys can slug and do not have granit chins, very interesting isn’t it, as one can go down at any moment from what we may procieve as a rather normal punch (just happens to hit the sweet spot). Many fighters have “slim whiskers” but defense hides it well.. Chris Byrd did not have any-chin but became a champion.. Tommy Hearns (from my state) had a weak-chin but had the power to protect it (most of the time).
tuesday5 2010 6,55am true
It’s the whole reason why I don’t see him as a huge force in the HW division.
Not too many HW’s with suspect or worse chin’s have made it big in the division. Lennox Lewis and Wlad Klitschko are some of them, but they have their height advantage to cover that up a bit (hard to reach after their massive long jabs). And even they have been knocked out by second tier fighters.
Against a strong chinned puncher Haye will have a huge problem, and there are quite a few of them in the division.
On a realistic level, we know Haye isnt chinny, but he does leave himself open, afterall its not like he has stayed down and it has always been a good shot that has floored him. His only stoppage came to Carl Thompson a fighter who was an absolute beast and took an absolute barrage of shots from Haye (a lot of refs would’ve stepped in) in the first two and by the 5th he was tired and Carl capitalised.
Chin problem? Sure he`s (Haye) got it along with a mouth problem and he could do with a better hair style to boot.
Main thing going with Haye is some wise guy PR stunt types are behind him trying to effect an Ali-image more or less for the fighter. Haye agrees and plays the game. He cannot pull the race card becuz his mother might object otherwise we have the return of Ali and all the noise and banter associated with that scam act.
I watched the Barret fight and it was an obvious slip. When Barret hit him whilst he was on one knee of course he took advantage of the foul to have a rest you can see that, it is blatent. You are just trying to make something out of nothing. However when Ruiz was KO’d by Tua i thought he was never going to get up again, so does he have a suspect chin? Or is the traffic only one way?
i see this fight being the same as the macranelie fight for haye,macca has much more power than ruiz and haye showed no respect for his power and walked through him in 2 rounds,i realy cant see the fight lasting much longer than that,because if tua can ko ruiz in a round i see haye as having the same sort of power as tua,so just doesn’t look good for ruiz.
alot of all you people dont know this but David Haye has been knocked out and knocked down more recent then Wladimir Klitschko Wlad has amazing experence in the ring now stuff u cant teach boxers like hes perfect jab hes defense only boxing trainers like Emanuel Steward can and Klitschko def has a better corner then Haye
i like the fact that he is honest?!! the bklitchkos will kill haye we won the title from a giant? with no skills in valuev.. he hasnt been tested at all in the heavyweight division and ruiz is a joke no power at all.
haye has chin issues? Lets pump him to fight Wlad. wtf