David Haye

Haye was born on October 13, 1980, in Bermondsey, south London. Encouraged by his parents to take up combat sports, he was at one point steered towards martial arts, but at the age of 10 he walked into the Fitzroy Lodge boxing gym and caught the bug. He left school at 15 with no qualifications.⁠[1][2][2][2]

In 2001 he reached the final of the World Amateur Boxing Championships in Belfast, losing to Cuba’s Odlanier Solis in the third round to take the silver medal.⁠[1][3]

In December 2002, aged 22, he made his professional cruiserweight debut at York Hall in Bethnal Green, London, beating the experienced Tony Booth, who retired at the end of the second round with a rib injury. He had already signed a 10-fight contract with the BBCBBCThe BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) is the United Kingdom’s public broadcaster. Its predecessor was the British Broadcasting Company, formed in 1922, and since 1927 it has been established under a Royal Charter. It provides television, radio, and online services in the UK, is funded mainly by the television licence fee, and broadcasts worldwide in multiple languages through BBC World Service.Open the full entry and secured a sponsorship deal with the sportswear brand Puma.⁠[3][3][3][3][3]

In September 2004 he lost to former WBO champion Carl Thompson in an IBO cruiserweight title fight at Wembley Arena in London, the first defeat of his professional career.⁠[1]

In December 2005 he beat Alexander Gurov in Bracknell to win the European Boxing Union (EBU) cruiserweight title; in 2006 he retained it three times, against Lasse Johansen, Ismail Abdoul and Giacobbe Fragomeni.⁠[1][1]

He began 2007 with a heavyweight fight, knocking out Poland’s Tomasz Bonin in the first round. In November that year he travelled to Paris to challenge France’s Jean-Marc Mormeck and, after being knocked down in the fourth round, knocked his opponent out in the seventh to win the WBA and WBC world cruiserweight titles.⁠[1][4][5]

In March 2008 he beat Welshman Enzo Maccarinelli in the second round at the O2 Arena in London, adding the WBO belt and unifying all the major world cruiserweight titles within four months. He then announced a permanent move to heavyweight and gave up his cruiserweight titles; in November that year he won his first fight as a full-time heavyweight, stopping Monte Barrett in the fifth round in London.⁠[1][2][1][1]

In June 2009 he pulled out of a planned fight with WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko because of injury. On November 7 that year, in Nuremberg, Germany, he challenged the far larger Russian WBA heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev and won on a majority decision, with two judges favouring him and the third scoring a draw. He said after the fight that he had damaged his right hand in the second or third round and had tried to win mainly with his left.⁠[1][1][5][6][6][6]

He thereby became the first Briton to hold a world heavyweight crown since Lennox Lewis, and only the second boxer after the American Evander Holyfield to unify the cruiserweight titles and become a heavyweight world champion. He said after the fight: “From when I was a little baby I said I’d be the heavyweight champion of the world and today my dream’s become truth.”⁠[7][8][6]

On April 3, 2010, he fought American John Ruiz in Manchester, and Ruiz’s corner threw in the towel in the ninth round; on November 13 he stopped British boxer Audley Harrison in the third round for his second successful defence. That year Anglia Ruskin University awarded him an honorary Doctor of Science degree.⁠[1][1][2]

The two had been due to fight in 2009, but he withdrew with a back injury, and negotiations repeatedly stalled after that. On July 2, 2011, Haye, the WBA champion, met IBF and WBO champion Wladimir Klitschko in a heavyweight unification fight in Hamburg, Germany, lost on points, and gave up his WBA title. After the fight he said that a broken right little toe suffered three weeks earlier had affected his performance.⁠[9][9][9][9][1][10]

In October 2011 the British Boxing Board of Control said Haye had emailed the board stating that he did not wish to renew his fighting licence. On October 13, his 31st birthday, he announced his retirement as he had promised, turning down the chance to challenge Vitali Klitschko at the start of 2012.⁠[1][1][1]

He then reversed his decision to retire and fought fellow Briton Dereck Chisora at Upton Park, West Ham’s ground in London. The two had brawled at a press conference, and the fight was not sanctioned by the British Boxing Board of Control. He knocked Chisora out in the fifth round, becoming the first boxer to stop him.⁠[11][5][7][11][5]

In December 2012 he finished third in the final of the 2012 series of the reality show I’m a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! after 22 days in the Australian rainforest; the winner was the actress Charlie Brooks.⁠[12][12]

In April 2013 he announced a fight against Manuel Charr in Manchester that June and confirmed a long-term arrangement with promoter Eddie Hearn, but the fight was cancelled when he injured his hand. A fight with Tyson Fury set for September 28 was postponed to February 8, 2014 after he suffered a cut to his head in training. In November that year, after reconstruction surgery on his right shoulder, he was advised to retire, and the Fury fight was cancelled. He said: “It’s a crushing blow for me.”⁠[11][11][7][13][13][7][7][7]

After his 2013 shoulder surgery it was widely assumed that his career was over, but he said he had always planned to come back, describing “The Hayemaker” as an alter ego he used to promote fights. In November 2015 he announced a comeback under trainer Shane McGuigan, aiming to regain the world title he had lost in 2011. In January 2016 he knocked out Australian Mark de Mori in the first round at the O2 Arena in London; on May 21 that year he floored Arnold Gjergjaj three times to win in the second round, after three and a half years out of the sport following shoulder surgery.⁠[14][14][14][14][15][15][15][16][16][16]

In March 2017 he fought WBC cruiserweight champion Tony Bellew, a bitter rival, in a non-title heavyweight contest at the O2 Arena in London. He suffered an Achilles injury in the sixth round, and after a second knockdown in the 11th his corner threw in the towel. The fight drew more than 700,000 pay-per-view buyers; afterwards he asked for a rematch and went to hospital for surgery.⁠[17][18][17][17][17]

The rematch, originally scheduled for December 17, 2017, was postponed after he slipped in training and damaged his biceps. In May 2018 the two met again at the O2 Arena in London, and Bellew knocked him down three times before stopping him in the fifth round.⁠[19][19][19][20][5]

On June 12, 2018, aged 37, he announced his retirement with a professional record of four defeats in 32 fights. He said he was ready to close this chapter of his life, “but this is not the end of my story – it’s simply the start of something new.”⁠[8][8][8]

In August 2021, three years after retiring, he announced an eight-round heavyweight contest that September at the Staples Center in Los Angeles against his friend Joe Fournier, an entrepreneur turned professional boxer. He said it was not a traditional comeback and that he remained “happily retired.” He knocked Fournier down and won on a decision.⁠[21][21][21][21][22]

On May 19, 2026, The Venture RoomThe Venture RoomThe Venture Room is a UK entrepreneurial media brand centered on the YouTube channel @theventureroom. Through long-form interviews with founders and street interviews such as “Asking Millionaires How They Got Rich?”, it presents entrepreneurs’ stories and advice to aspiring business owners, and runs an entrepreneur community and brand partnerships.Open the full entry published a street-interview video filmed in Piccadilly, London, in which he appears at 6:26. Asked how he made his first million, he said it came from boxing, which he had loved since the age of 10, and said that he did not make his first million until he was 28. He said he never boxed for money but believed the money would come with winning fights and titles; he said that before challenging Mormeck he had the chance to fight Maccarinelli for roughly three times the money, but chose the harder, lower-paid fight for the glory, and that after reaching the number one spot he was regularly paid three or four times his original offers. He named AI as an underrated business area and said that none of the wealthy people he had met was on a salary.⁠[23][23][23][23][23][23][23][23][23]

“If you believe in something wholeheartedly, attack it like your life depends on it.” He said that since everyone dies one day, you should give everything you have to what your heart tells you to do. (at 6:53 in the video)⁠[23][23]

“I wanted the glory instead, so I took way less money in a much harder fight.” He believes that giving up higher short-term pay for long-term standing brings greater rewards later. (at 7:20 in the video)⁠[23][23]

“Working for someone, there’s a ceiling. Whereas if you build something for yourself, it’s unlimited. It might not work, but if it does, you’re in full control of it.” (at 7:53 in the video)⁠[23][23]

“We’ve got two lives, and the second one only begins when you realize you’ve only got one.” He said that because you never know when the end will come, you should start living your life today, not tomorrow. (at 8:06 in the video)⁠[23][23]

X: Public account: https://x.com/davidhaye (opens in a new window)⁠[21]