David Haye: A Career to Be Proud Of or a Career Wasted?

David Haye seems set to announce his retirement from boxing after declining to renew his boxing license with the British Boxing Board of Control. The news backs up the claims constantly made by Haye for the last year that he would not fight on after his 31st birthday, which occurs this Thursday. This leaves us with a nine year, 27 fight career to look back on (minus the Harrison fight, it was just too painful to remember willingly).

During his recent years as a heavyweight, Haye has greatly divided opinion in the boxing community. His constant insulting of the top men in the heavyweight division led some to see him as a breath of fresh air in an otherwise stagnant division. However, the greater number seemed to find his actions too brash and too personal, with the infamous decapitation t-shift a prime example.

What we must not forget is that before his ascent into the heavyweight division, Haye forged a highly respectable record as a cruiserweight. The highlights of this were a knockout of France's Jean-Marc Mormeck (who will find out what it's like to lose to Wladimir Klitschko himself in December) and a two round demolition of Enzo Maccarinelli in an all-British unification bout.

British promoter Barry Hearn told Sky Sports News, "He was never really big enough to be a heavyweight". This is complete rubbish. In his last few cruiserweight fights, Haye struggled to make weight and did about as well as any other heavyweight has against the seemingly unstoppable Wladimir Klitschko.

Throughout his career, Haye has gone after the big fights, ducking no-one. Even the Klitschko's thought better of stepping into a ring with the seven-foot two-inch giant Nikolai Valuev. Yet in only his second fight back at heavyweight, Haye not only beat the huge Russian, but did it in Valuev's adopted home of Germany, where judges don't always see fights as expected.

For all the good in Haye's career, he will most likely be remembered for the buildup and subsequent let down of his fight with Wladimir Klitschko. The buildup was excruciating, with Haye refusing to shake Wlad's hand and appearing to most more petulant than funny. While this may be the case, it attracted huge interest, the likes of which hadn't been seen since Lewis vs. Tyson.

As we all now know, the fight itself was a damp squib. Neither an upset nor a knockout materialised as Klitschko jabbed his way into an insurmountable lead and Haye relied on poor excuses about his supposedly injured toe. However, what was achieved was interest. Interest that was followed by Vitali-Adamek, another fight interesting on paper, yet inevitable on the night.

In a division without the Klitschko's, Haye could have easily become a dominant champion. At six-foot three-inches and with a 78-inch reach, Haye would have had the physical advantage over other top ten heavyweights such as Povetkin, Adamek and Eddie Chambers and had hand speed that no other heavyweight could compare with.

The biggest shame of Haye's career is that potentially close and entertaining matchups with these men will now not be made.

On one hand, Haye should be applauded for stepping away from the sport with his faculties, both mental and psychical, intact. At a time when a 48-year-old Evander Holyfield still fights on, at least Haye doesn't appear to crave that "one last big fight."

However, on the other hand, Klitschkos' manager Bernd Boente announced that if it made business sense "we will either do the fight or Vitali will fight another opponent in February or March next year".

For the moment at least, it appears as if David Haye's career is over. And love or loathe the man, he managed to do what no other fighter seems capable of, create interest in the heavyweight division. Yes, in his career defining fight his fists couldn't cash the cheques written by his mouth. But for an (albeit brief) period he made some of us care about heavyweights again and for that I thank him.