25 April 2020

David Haye reveals he would consider coming out of retirement to face Fury v Joshua winner

Former world heavyweight champion David Haye has revealed he would consider coming out of retirement to face the winner of a fight between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua.

The ‘Hayemaker’ hung up his gloves after being beaten in a rematch with Tony Bellew in May 2018, finishing his career with a record of 28 wins and four defeats.

And while he insists he would have to think about returning if a fight against Fury or Joshua presented itself, he also admits it would be a tough ask to overthrow either of the current British champions.

Speaking to Behind the Gloves, he said: "The only one that I would genuinely do is the winner of AJ and Fury because that would be the No 1 v No 1.

"That’s probably the only one, but not really. It’s a lot to go through. I've got my body in a nice place now. I'm super healthy, all my injuries have healed up, there's been no hardcore training.

“When you're training for a fight, you've got to really put your body through it. If you want to knock out the big guys or have a chance of winning against the giants you've got to really sacrifice and put your body through it.”

Both Joshua and Fury recently reclaimed versions of the heavyweight title after Joshua defeated Andy Ruiz Jr in Saudi Arabia and Fury stopped Deontay Wilder in Las Vegas to avenge the pair's controversial draw in December 2018.

“I remember watching Joshua when he fought Andy Ruiz and I thought ‘Damn, that would be very, very difficult to beat',” Haye added.

“I thought the same thing when I saw Fury beat Wilder. That version of AJ and that version of Fury, for any heavyweight in history, would have been a hard, hard night. And it's nice to see the sport evolving.”

Joshua looks set to take on Bulgarian Kubrat Pulev at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in his next fight, although the bout has been postponed from the original date of June 20 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

And Fury is expected to go toe-to-toe with Wilder in a trilogy bout after the American triggered his rematch clause to secure a third fight.

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