Making Haye

Ive just been on hol (missed both Khan and Haye fights....d'oh) and read Haye's book. Its not an autobiog but a young journalist's first hand account of being by haye's side through his career from before the Thompson fight to Wladimir.

Its actually well written and isn't a gushing account of how good haye is, which i was dreading it'd be.

a few things stick out though. Since his last cruiser fight against Enzo he has felt the need to play heavy mind games with opponents.
He had no issue's at all of making 200lbs, even before the Mormeck fight as the Enzo fight was touted for a while behind the scenes. He knew it'd be a big money maker and often mentioned in interviews he struggled to make weight and was out growing the division in order to plant seeds of encouragement for warren and enzo mac.

after the mormeck fight he said it was his last fight at cruiser and he couldnt make weight any more. if enzo wanted the fight it'd have to be at heavy for no titles. Warren thought he'd got his was when it was agreed for the fight to be a unification cruiser bout, all the while they assumed haye would come in weakened and drained. Haye made a point of turning the mind games up a notch by not only making weight but coming in a full 2lbs UNDER. In the end enzo couldnt even get UP to 200lbs and still looked a little flabby and got blasted out in 2. easy money for Haye and his biggest purse at the time.

Against Barret he actually got the writer of the book to reveal 'secrets' about Haye's camp to Monte - things not going so well and they weren't training and under estimating him etc

He fully admits the Harrison fight was all about the money. No other explanation was given for it. Harrison won the euro title, got a world ranking and the fight could be made. in the run up they knew the fight was going to be easy.

The writer notes about Haye, although not suffering pre-fight nerves, against some fighters he wasn't as confident. Against harrison he didnt have a care in the world, enzo too.

Remember the original fight against Wlad and his back issue?? - Haye and Booth had a falling out for a good while, he wasnt training properly and openly admits the things he needed to do in order to win, he wasnt able to pull off in training. He was a stone overweight too. Something at the time we assumed was just Haye's heavyweight frame (since then he's gone back down to the 15 stone mark for fights)

Nearer to the fight things clicked into place and he started to train properly when his back went. It is admitted that it was a good sign, as setanta went bust and it saved them fighting for free.

The amount of mind games played against Wlad we saw - not shaking his hand, not being in the same room as him, all the t-shirts and iphone apps were simply to get into the mind of Wlad and give Haye a mental advantage.

It becomes obvious in the latter stage he relied on these tactics which is strange as in the first 2 thirds of his career he simply went in and blasted everyone out without a thought. This to be in a sign of self doubt, he needed every advantage against his opposition, especially Wlad who was always a cool customer and willing to chat happily. (making haye walk through the crowd was a taste of haye's own medicine, especially people trampling on his toe)

The toe is barely mentioned - they weren't nervous about it as the numbing injections worked until the night of the fight.

Its a good read but going out of their may playing mind games really stuck out at me. If haye was as confident as he says, he wouldnt need to bother with any of his nonsense.

Most top class play mind games in one way or another. K2 do it very well. And of course Ali did it all his career.

I have also read the book and reviewed it in the reviews section previously. As I mentioned in my review the constant talk of mind games is one of the elements of the book and Haye and Booth’s character that really began to grate on me, you do get the impression that they view themselves as Machiavellian masterminds constantly staying one step ahead of the snakes that pollute boxing, when lets face facts feeding opponents information that you’re looking rubbish in training is hardly a conspiracy that would do the illuminati proud, hell Harry Greb was doing the same nearly 100 years ago.

Agree with your general thrust though that the book was better than I expected it to be.

Yeah, Haye has said in interviews that he didn't really have trouble making cruiserweight, and still could make it now if he wanted to. Underlined by the fact that Haye weighed in at 210 against Chisora.

smashingstormcrow wrote:Yeah, Haye has said in interviews that he didn't really have trouble making cruiserweight, and still could make it now if he wanted to. Underlined by the fact that Haye weighed in at 210 against Chisora.

In fact, Haye also has mentioned on a few occasions that he has to constantly eat in order to keep his weight up and weigh in at 210. He probably walks around at 210lbs and, considering the muscle he has put on since moving up to HW, it indicates that he was likely making Cruiser without any exertion whatsoever.

With this in mind, does anybody think that a younger, svelter version of Haye could have boiled down to 175lbs? Obviously, as we all know, it is not uncommon for fighters to shed up to 15 - 20lbs in weight prior to a weigh-in. Thus, if Haye could have gotten down to 185-190 by losing some muscle mass (Haye has always been a well muscled fighter, even in his Cruiser years) could he have made 175 and entered the ring up at about 190?

Gentleman01 wrote:

smashingstormcrow wrote:Yeah, Haye has said in interviews that he didn't really have trouble making cruiserweight, and still could make it now if he wanted to. Underlined by the fact that Haye weighed in at 210 against Chisora.

In fact, Haye also has mentioned on a few occasions that he has to constantly eat in order to keep his weight up and weigh in at 210. He probably walks around at 210lbs and, considering the muscle he has put on since moving up to HW, it indicates that he was likely making Cruiser without any exertion whatsoever.

With this in mind, does anybody think that a younger, svelter version of Haye could have boiled down to 175lbs? Obviously, as we all know, it is not uncommon for fighters to shed up to 15 - 20lbs in weight prior to a weigh-in. Thus, if Haye could have gotten down to 185-190 by losing some muscle mass (Haye has always been a well muscled fighter, even in his Cruiser years) could he have made 175 and entered the ring up at about 190?

Not a hope in hell, as an 17/18yo boy he weighed 178lb. By the time he reached 19/20yo he was a fully fledged amateur heavyweight 199lb-ish (the equivalent of a pro cruiserweight). He was a big big raw boned lad in his early 20's there is no way could he could drop 24lb through dehydration.