When revealing his top five heavyweights of all time, David Haye could name only one fighter greater than fellow Brit Lennox Lewis, who famously defeated every opponent that he faced in the ring.
Lewis remains as one of just four three-time heavyweight world champions in history, his legacy defined by wins over the likes of Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson.
However, despite those triumphs, some fans respect ‘The Lion’ more for how he recovered from his two career hiccups, bouncing back from stoppage defeats to both Oliver McCall and Hasim Rahman to return the favour and knock both former foes out himself.
As a result, when naming his top five big men to have graced the squared circle, fellow former world heavyweight champion Haye was full of respect for Lewis and placed him second, but noticeably left Mike Tyson out of his list.
On the Costello and Bunce BBC podcast, Haye explained the omission of ‘Iron Mike’, declaring that Tyson’s lack of improvement, after becoming boxing’s youngest heavyweight world champion at the age of 20, means he cannot be considered.
“If he’s 21, he’s a baby in boxing terms. He was only going to get better and better. But what happened was, he peaked at 21 and didn’t get better, he got worse every fight. He did less training, less sparring, had less discipline, more money, different women. He got worse and worse until he lost.”
Instead, Haye opted to include legendary champions Larry Holmes (#5), George Foreman (#4) and Evander Holyfield (#3), but saved top spot for ‘The Greatest’, Muhammad Ali, whom he considers to be the only heavyweight superior to Lennox Lewis.
