Words matter. These are the best David Haye Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
A lot of people say, ‘OK, I’m overweight, so I’m not going to eat any food; I’m only going to have an apple a day,’ but then your body will go into starvation mode, so what you’ve got to do is increase your metabolism.
To me, being heavyweight world champion and Olympic sprint champion are the two greatest prizes in sport.
I’ve got a really canny knack for avoiding big punches or clean punches.
It’s hard to judge somebody before or after a fight. Adrenaline is flowing, and you’re hyped up.
Look what the Rumble in the Jungle did for Zaire. No one had ever heard of Zaire until then. After Muhammad Ali fought George Foreman for the title, no one forgets it.
There are a lot of fighters, when I fight them, they stay hit forever and never fight again.
I’d like to be one of the ones who got out on his own terms.
I’ve had a lot of good nights, and ideally, I don’t want to be remembered for a bad night.
The boxing public aren’t interested in knowing me. They want to know The Hayemaker, the one who gives it big.
It was always about being first, about winning. There were no prizes for second place. My mother and father said, ‘Do whatever you want, as long as you’re the best at it.’
I would fight till I’m dead. This is why I am here. I am put on Earth to fight. I feel it deep in my waters.
People say, ‘Where do you get your strength from?’ Well, where does an ape get his strength from? They are 20 times stronger than humans, and they don’t rely on a meat-based diet. They eat plants all day long. It’s a myth that you need meat for strength.
I’m good at keeping on top of my emotions and not letting them influence the fight.
My performance against Ruiz was a good one – there were plenty of knockdowns, excitement, and drama.
I want to leave a legacy, but to do that, I need to be on my best game.
The bigger the pressure, the sharper I am, the more in tune with my body I am, the better my tactics seem to be. A lot of people crumble under pressure; they do something crazy.
The whole idea behind going ahead with this Chisora fight was that a victory may then lead to a fight with Vitali Klitschko.
I’ve got no desire to fight Dereck Chisora inside the ring or outside the ring.
There are probably one million dudes in America called Kevin Johnson, and beating one of them doesn’t make you an all-time great heavyweight.
To beat Wladimir Klitschko, I have to be better than I’ve ever been.
I love watching reruns of ‘Sex And The City.’
I eat tall, chinny, Eastern European heavyweights for breakfast.
There are no shortcut to losing weight. Just hard work and dedication, hard work and dedication.
One thing you can guarantee with the Travellers, they’ve got a lot of heart.
Arturo Gatti-Micky Ward. Joe Frazier-Muhammad Ali. You get these rivalries in boxing – not that often, so when you do get them, why do you want to sanitise it?
Mark de Mori is a solid operator.
Maybe Tony Bellew is my Benn-Eubank.
I want to knock out both Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko, and I don’t care what order they fall in.
Fury said he would rather fight his cousin than me.
Although boxing is a sport, it’s still entertainment. You’ve still got the fear, press conferences, the stare-downs. It’s all an act in some ways. My whole life I’ve been doing it. I love this side of boxing – as much as the actual fight.
It’s boxing. It’s about getting people interested. If I didn’t say some stupid things from time to time, there wouldn’t be that many people interested in me. But I let my fists do the talking when the bell rings.
I was actually very fortunate. I think I was actually the only kid in my class at one stage that actually had a father in the home.
I want to fight who the fans who want me to fight.
Only time will tell whether the Klitschkos need me more than I need them. They won’t believe that. But it depends what they want out of boxing. If they want guaranteed easy victories, then they can do what they’ve always done, but if they want a tough challenge, you’d think they would want to beat down my door.
What I want to achieve in boxing is worldwide. I want to show I’m not just a British commodity… To do that, you have to fight the best and fight all over the world.
The Hayemaker is a dangerous fellow who, when the bell rings, is on a seek and destroy mission, by any means necessary. No playing around. No comedy. It’s just straight-up business.
Every boxer needs to be able to punch, but none more than me, and that’s because I’m not that skilful, and I’m one of the smallest heavyweights you’ll ever see.
If I didn’t have a great right hook, the bigger, heavier fighters would grind me down and smother me.
Once you share a ring with someone, go to war with someone… you have a different type of respect for someone.
I always fight better when my opponent’s angry.
I’ve never been to Ukraine, but I have heard it’s very dangerous for a black man. There are crazy racists who have already sent me death threats.
I’ve got three Bentleys, a couple of Mercs, and two Range Rovers.
It’s often my opponent’s plan to take me into the later rounds, but the amount of damage that has accumulated on them means they don’t hear the final bell.
No flipping tables over any more for me.
Even on one leg, I thought I could knock Tony Bellew out. I was gutted when Shane McGuigan threw the towel in.
Even though he’s a moron, I supported Tyson Fury.
I was born with a black eye. When they pulled me out with the forceps, they clamped them round my face, so I had a big bruise from that.
I’m too fast, too sexy, and too talented to be blown away by a large, slow robot from the Ukraine.
I have the heart of lion.
I want to have the same success in my acting career as I did in my boxing career.
When I’m training, I use heavier crepe for wraps, for protection – but you’re not allowed to use them in competition. So when it comes to the fight, the wraps are softer.
If you ever need a good steak, Stringfellows is the place to go in London.
I am not interested in fighting against 50 wimps like the Klitschkos do.
Just before a fight, as the ring empties, you can feel it. There is danger and loneliness all around you. Soon it’s just the three of you in there: the referee, your opponent, and you. You’re in a very lonely moment then. But, strangely, that’s when I feel most comfortable. The ring becomes my office, and I go to work.
There is no room for sentiment in a boxing ring.
No one’s going to hold your hand in the boxing business. And the people who do end up ripping you off.
In 2000, I got stuck in the sea off Cyprus after I fell off a boat. I was out there for over an hour. I am not a strong swimmer, but adrenaline kicked in, and I swam back.
I would love to have gone there, fight at Madison Square Garden or a casino in Las Vegas, but there are no American heavyweights now who can pose a challenge to me.
Boxing fans are a very cynical bunch.
It makes absolutely no sense for me to turn down a fight I desperately want.
I spent more than £150,000 on a limited-edition Mercedes SL.
Anything’s possible if you set your heart on something, no matter how big and how crazy it seems.
I always told everyone I’d be heavyweight champion of the world one day. They’d say, ‘All right, whatever.’ I said, ‘OK, you’ll see.’
I’ve got good genes. My dad was a martial arts instructor – and he was good.
You get these young kids who are training their whole life to go to the Olympics. To go there and not fight someone else like them but fight someone who has might won an Olympics before, been a world champion, and is just coming back to fight some kids, I think is insane.
Whatever any boxer does in the ring, I don’t think any reporter should call him a coward. Anyone who does that I lose complete respect for. There’s a difference between being a coward and being scared, or apprehensive. Different fighters have got different mentalities.
Fight fans just want to see the best against the best – if only it was that simple.
Slowly but surely, as time goes on, people forget about you. People stop talking about you. You stop seeing your name in the papers. I like to believe that I don’t think that will bother me. As long as I know I’ve achieved my goals and people believe I’m the best at what I do, then I’ll be happy.
I’m going to be a movie star, break Hollywood.
Once I have beaten Mormeck, I don’t feel there’ll be anything left to prove. After winning the world title, I will be recognised as the No. 1 cruiserweight in the world.
