Haye puts off pay-day

13 April 2012

David Haye, London's latest heavyweight sensation, today revealed he will put country before cash by pledging his immediate future to amateur boxing.

The historic silver medal Haye won in the World Senior Amateur Championships in Belfast last week proves he has the potential to rake in the riches enjoyed by former undisputed world title-holder Lennox Lewis, one of Britain's richest sportsmen, and Olympic champion Audley Harrison, who is carving out a lucrative career on the professional circuit.

But this 20-year-old from Catford has a wise head on his broad shoulders.

Even though, as a full-time 'amateur', he barely breaks even on the Lottery funding he receives, Haye believes the experience he can gain by going for glory in the Commonwealth Games in Manchester next year and the 2004 Olympics in Athens will be worth more in the long run than the offers he is getting to switch to the ranks of paid fighters.

"I've got time on my side," said Haye, the first England team member ever to win silver in the World Championships.

"I'm still developing physically and even if I stayed amateur to the next Olympics in 2004 I would still only be 24. That is a baby age for a heavyweight."

Haye, who trains three times a day at the hi-tech Third Space gym in Piccadilly, believes if he turned professional straight away he would have to build up a record against journeymen before challenging for titles, as Harrison is having to do. Harrison claimed a hollow victory from his professional debut at Wembley last month when Michael Middleton of the United States lasted just two minutes and forty-five seconds.

Harrison makes his second professional appearance at Liverpool's Olympic Arena on 14 July and although the opponent has yet to be confirmed, he is unlikely to cause Harrison any more problems than Middleton did.

Harrison's problem is his age. He was 28 when he claimed Olympic gold as a super-heavyweight in Sydney last October, and that left him with a lot of ground to make up in his quest to become world champion by his mid-thirties.

Haye, who gained his grounding at London's famous Fitzroy Lodge club before switching to the Docklands-based Broad Street ABC, said: "If I was the same age as Audley, there is no doubt I would have turned professional straight away just like him.

"But by staying amateur I will be fighting the top guys in my branch of the sport - the boxers I fought in Belfast all have the potential to become professional world champions.

"I look at Middleton, and Audley beat guys 10 times better than him on his way to winning at the Olympics.

"By staying amateur, I will be fighting top-quality opposition and the better people I fight, the more I raise my own game."

Haye demonstrated his talent to adapt, so vital in the professional ring, when he beat Germany's Olympic gold medalist Sebastian Kober in the second round in Belfast.

He recalled: "I was boxing the same way as I did when I won my first fight, but the judges weren't pushing their scoring buttons for me. I knew I had to change my style drastically, so I started slugging it out with the German.

"That was a learning experience. That is the kind of thing that is going to make me a more complete boxer."

Haye came within one punch of pulling off the shock of the Belfast tournament when he forced Odlanier Fonte Solis to take a count in the opening 30 seconds of their final.

It was a beautiful right uppercut followed by a chopping right cross that stunned a Cuban whose record showed two wins over legendary countryman Felix Savon.

But the giant Solis proved his pedigree by regrouping and then stopping Haye in the third round.

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Haye puts off pay-day

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