David Haye Interview: Talks Move To HW & MMA

[USBAdguy88]

Sorry, I think in terms of contenders and discount Wlad, Vitali and Haye as champions...if I included them, then no Ustinov, but without those 3 my top 10 contenders looks like

1. Adamek
2. Helenius
3. Arreola
3. Povetkin
4. Chambers
5. Valuev
6. Chagaev
7. Thompson
8. Ustinov
9. Solis
0. Boswell

Most won't agree with Boswell either but such is the case.

 

[consortium11]

With a danger of going off topic I'd wonder why the likes of Dimitrenko, Pulev, Boytsov, Pianeta or Gomez aren't ranked higher.

 

[USBAdguy88]

Why not go off topic, Haye's never going into MMA I suspect at time's he barely wants to keep boxing at this point...

Dimentrenko would be like 10b, but I still have a hard time getting over the way a much smaller and light hitting Chambers worked him, it seemed like Universum was grooming him to be the next big thing and it was a huge letdown. I'm not sure of his ability as much as I once was.

Boytsov might be the greatest fighter ever, but he has just been banging out a lot of guys who aren't up to snuff the Taras win was probably his best, but I just don't rank him yet because he looks the part and is knocking out journeymen...a lot of guys do that their first 20 or so fights against inferior competition....granted Ustinov does the same, but I rate his competition as slightly better than Boytsov's of late. Maybe because Ustinov needs to be moved faster due to his age and Boytsov's people have the luxury of time to stall until the current champions degrade or retire.

JC Gomez would be right in the thick of things if he shows he has bounced back by beating another contender before he gets too old. I'm surprised he hasn't worked his way into a WBC eliminator of some kind against Ray Austin...I wouldn't mind seeing him against Arreola to see if Arreola-Lite has learned to deal with a jab and movement.

I've never seen Pulev or Pianeta fight so I can't rightly comment on either.

 

[shotokanMMA]

Most of the time you'll see some fat overweight wwe mma fan come to these forums to downsize boxing as a sport. A long establish tradition in many countries. Many in the countries that I have traveled around the world through my eyes. I am a big fan of mma and I watch all the major mma events. Boxing to me is more of a tradition and a sport combined.
Mixed Martial Arts is a mix of pre-established arts from other countries in which martial arts is no longer relevant and was at one point relevant centuries ago. Mixed martial arts is not a tradition but rather the combination of many martial arts bound together by one rule.

If you think that a boxer cannot dedicate his training like a current mixed martial artist to be competitive in the sport then you are dead wrong. Most professional boxers are gifted hand to hand fighters well beyond the expertise of your average mixed martial artist. If you use a fat old out of shape James Toney as an example then you are pretty ignorant. Haye is a pretty good fighter himself so I really cannot say anything unless he trains ground fighting for at least 3-4 years and commits to all aspects of mma. With the money he is making it would be counter productive for him to make such move.