DAVID HAYE promotes Joe Joyce and trains with the same coach, Ismael Salas. But he will never spar with the Olympic silver medallist.
Haye explained, โIf we both get in the ring with each other, weโve both got one gear and itโs just hard and something will get broke. Either Iโll get broke or heโll get broke and I donโt want to break me and I donโt want to break him. Neither of us, him particularly, he canโt spar softโฆ Iโll have to go 100% and he goes 100%. Somethingโs going to break and Iโd rather he do that to other people, his opponents in the ring.โ
โHe got a very, very good learning fight in his first professional fight [against Ian Lewison]. Heโs shown 30 to 40% of what he can do, compared to what Iโve seen in sparring. So Iโm very, very positive about his future,โ Haye added. โExactly the fight I wanted. I couldnโt have scripted it any better. What I didnโt want was him to fight someone, he hits them on the chin and they fall over. Because that just gives him a false sense of security about his power.
“Because in the heavyweight division, fighters even at domestic level, guys like [Dereck] Chisora, theyโve got granite chins, you canโt just expect to go out, hit them with one shot and knock them out. [Lewison] had 11 weeks notice. I wanted to make sure Ian was in shape to go 10 rounds and he was clearly. Heโs not the most body beautiful fighter but heโs shown heโs got bags of heart and heโs there for 10 rounds if you allow him to.โ
Haye also insisted he is already in good condition for his December 17 rematch with Tony Bellew. โIโm in good form, youโll get a much more entertaining fight,โ he said. โI am, much better than many people anticipate. But the proof of the pudding is in the eating. I feel good, Iโve been training hard. I had an operation on the Sunday, the Monday I was back in training. I havenโt stopped training the whole time. Iโm in great condition now. I could fight tomorrow. Iโm 12 round fit now. Itโs a good place to be eight weeks out from a fight.โ