Will David Haye enter MMA?

He has expressed an interest once he stops boxing and said he has been training for a good few years.

Does anyone think he will enter mma at any point & what kind of success do you think he could have?

I dont think he will.

He might enjoy it but if he is champion of the world in Boxing and earning mega bcks, why go into MMA to start again and get pennies?

All talk from the biggest mouth in boxing.

Hobo wrote:I dont think he will.

He might enjoy it but if he is champion of the world in Boxing and earning mega bcks, why go into MMA to start again and get pennies?

All talk from the biggest mouth in boxing.

Put like that you are probably right. With the kind of money he will have in the bank its not gonna be easy putting in all the hard work in again, you'd think he'd stay in boxing, defo more money but he would earn well 1st fight in MMA if he could convince the promoters that he'd bring boxing fans over. IF he really loves it & has the dedication & desire for it & he wins his 1st fight then I could see him being fast tracked like Lesnar was, he's got a similar sized ego & arrogance about him.

I really doubt he will,If he beats Wladamir he's one of the biggest names in boxing.Hes not gonna trade that too start another new career with MMA.

Hope he does and gets destroyed can't stand the man. Don't see it though.

Doubt it. As someone has already said, he says a lot of things to create publicity, that’s all. I think he’s a genuine MMA fan, and I understand he’s done a fair bit of training, but the money doesn’t compare so I doubt it.

However, if he retires later this year as he’s said he will, he may see MMA as a less dangerous option to continue a fighting career. That’s not a dig at MMA, it just relates to the fact that MMA fighters take far fewer punches than boxers. Therefore, I think their careers can last longer. I think Chuck Liddell said something similar when asked about the danger of MMA, stating that the boxers in one fight he saw probably took more punches in that one fight than he’d taken in his career.

I very much doubt it, seems like he's dying to get out the fight game period.

I think he has stated that he doesn't want to live out his old age all messed up.

Look at Holyfield, that is one fighter who has taken one too many hits the head.

Haye would be an emense MMA fighter, but with his power and those gloves he would kill someone if he punched their head into the ground.

I read an interview with Haye a while back saying that he wouldn't do MMA as it would take too long to get to the same professional level that he's now reached in boxing. As he said, he's boxed since he was 10 years old. But interestingly he also said that he wouldn't do MMA because grappling reduces your punching power because of the energy you have to exert just to wrestle somebody off of you. If Haye were to take up professional MMA he may be one of the heaviest hitters but some of his power would be diminished due to the wrestling and BJJ. I also think there would be a Brock or Carwin effect in as much as Haye would probably get some spectacular KOs but eventually he'd come up against a more skilled fighter who pick his defence apart and beat him emphatically.

If David Haye competed in MMA he could technically fight at Light Heavy 205 as he is not a very big heavy.

Dont know many light heavys that could take his power

Jon Jones, Rashard Evans, hell even Matt Hamil would beat David Haye at light heavy in MMA. Haye would lose against any top 10 wrestler, either by ground and pound submission or even lay and prey. The question of boxers moving over to MMA have been answered on more than one occasion.

Let’s look at the evidence:

Heavyweight Champ: Cain = NCAA Div 1 wrestler
Light Heavyweight Champ: Jones = NJCAA All american wrestler
Middleweight Champ: Silva = Striker (exception to the rule but still with a good ground game, look how he made Sonnen tap off his back)
Welterweight Champ: GSP = Trains with the Canadian Olympic wrestling team for crying out loud, and apparently good enough to even make the reserve team should he so wish
Lightweight: Edgar = Not an actual amateur wrestler in his youth, but look how he managed to get Penn down in their fights and Penn has some of the best take down defence in MMA, Edgar even managed to out wrestle Maynard for 4 rounds after being knocked silly for 5 minutes previous by Maynard.

No matter how great a boxer Haye is the move to MMA would be disastrous as he would get his bum handed to him on a plate (the same as Nick Diaz would have gotten had he actually gone through with his planned boxing match)

Anyways, just my two pence worth, peace....


...Thinking about it Michael Bisping even if he was to move back up to 205 and was to face Haye in Hayes first fight in MMA I would put Bisping as the decisive favorite and I don’t rate Bisping that highly

gibbo104 wrote:Jon Jones, Rashard Evans, hell even Matt Hamil would beat David Haye at light heavy in MMA. Haye would lose against any top 10 wrestler, either by ground and pound submission or even lay and prey. The question of boxers moving over to MMA have been answered on more than one occasion.

Let’s look at the evidence:

Heavyweight Champ: Cain = NCAA Div 1 wrestler
Light Heavyweight Champ: Jones = NJCAA All american wrestler
Middleweight Champ: Silva = Striker (exception to the rule but still with a good ground game, look how he made Sonnen tap off his back)
Welterweight Champ: GSP = Trains with the Canadian Olympic wrestling team for crying out loud, and apparently good enough to even make the reserve team should he so wish

Not to mention Silva is a black belt in BJJ and GSP is a black belt in Karate and BJJ

Haye is a powerful striker and I believe could KO anybody in his weight division if he ever competed in MMA but he doesn't have the overall fighting skills or background in either wrestling or martial arts to become the champ. Look at Carwin lost his title fight to Brock - by submission and then lost his no.1 contenders fight against JDS. Haye would need more than just his 'hayemaker'.

Wooooooo I never said he would beat anyone! And would get be beat by most fighters in the UFC. Am just saying saying not many could take a Haye punch, especially when he's got 5oz gloves on!

Soldier_Of_Fortune wrote:Wooooooo I never said he would beat anyone! And would get be beat by most fighters in the UFC. Am just saying saying not many could take a Haye punch, especially when he's got 5oz gloves on!

If Haye landed one of his Haymakers on ANYBODY with the UFC's 4oz gloves that they use then that person is going to sleep, no doubt about it! But the history of boxers moving over to MMA ala James Tony hasnt gone too well for the boxers so far.

Still would love to see Haye or any top boxer still in his prime make the move, it will never happen but would still love to see it.

Any boxer would get destroyed in mma, they would have to have a decent take down defence before they even got in the cage otherwise they would just get taken down and beaten up.

Well there are too different sports so what do you expect.

Would you expect a Cricketer to be good at baseball? Both use a bat and ball and have the ball thrown at them at 85 mph?

Soldier_Of_Fortune wrote:Well there are too different sports so what do you expect.

Would you expect a Cricketer to be good at baseball? Both use a bat and ball and have the ball thrown at them at 85 mph?

I agree, we should take into consideration that mma and boxing are two different sport's before answering the question that was asked in the article.

gibbo104 wrote:
Jon Jones, Rashard Evans, hell even Matt Hamil would beat David Haye at light heavy in MMA. Haye would lose against any top 10 wrestler, either by ground and pound submission or even lay and prey. The question of boxers moving over to MMA have been answered on more than one occasion.
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i agree with you that most boxers would get beat by a decent wrestler, but the question of a elite boxer coming over still hasnt been answered. the likes of toney is a joke in boxing now let alone mma, mercer was/is way past his best. no top class boxer has come over and fought yet and neither are they likely seeing though they earn so much more in there own sport.

but to suggest the likes of toney represent the same standard as a paco or haye if they come over is wrong. toney / butterbean etc barely trained for boxing let alone mma, if a hard working fighter such as paco put some effort to it he would be a much more live oppenent for a mma fighter

compelling and rich wrote:gibbo104 wrote:
Jon Jones, Rashard Evans, hell even Matt Hamil would beat David Haye at light heavy in MMA. Haye would lose against any top 10 wrestler, either by ground and pound submission or even lay and prey. The question of boxers moving over to MMA have been answered on more than one occasion.
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i agree with you that most boxers would get beat by a decent wrestler, but the question of a elite boxer coming over still hasnt been answered. the likes of toney is a joke in boxing now let alone mma, mercer was/is way past his best. no top class boxer has come over and fought yet and neither are they likely seeing though they earn so much more in there own sport.

but to suggest the likes of toney represent the same standard as a paco or haye if they come over is wrong. toney / butterbean etc barely trained for boxing let alone mma, if a hard working fighter such as paco put some effort to it he would be a much more live oppenent for a mma fighter

That is a very good point (im not so hot on boxers so I cant suggest any good potential cross overs) the fact is, yes, that every boxer that has come over so far has been either way past their prime or the way I understand it never a top 3 boxer of their respected weight class(es) but I cant even envision paco doing well crossing over even at the new 135lb UFC division simply because the skills learned in boxing will be a negative factor in MMA. I watched an interview with Freddy Roach (who is a big MMA fan and trains MMA fighters in striking) and he mentioned that he has to stop himself from teaching boxing techniques to MMA fighters. He mentioned that when he first starting training MMA fighters he would teach them to bob and weave but quickly stopped as he forgot that you could be kneed lol. Now these ducking techniques and standing close to an opponent (as you can stand closer in boxing as you don't have to worry about kicks) are built in traits that almost come naturally to the great, great boxers of today and that would leave them vulnerable to even some of the lower tear MMA fighters let alone the top level fighters.

This question has still to be answered of course as no elite boxer has come over but I don't think even a Paco or a Mayweather would do well crossing over (I also extend this theory to any MMA fighter thinking they could cross over into boxing, it just wont work be it GSP, Nick Diaz or JDS).

the reason why i picked paco is that he has blistering speed and great accuracy. often will be in and out before a top class boxer can even get close. while the style of striking is different in mma the level of skill isnt as high as top class boxing. im sure if paco cut out the things that would leave him open for a take down and kicks then he would be a handful for any mma fighter. and if given time he could learn, he's a very dedicated trainer. if it goes to the ground he's a goner but all fights start standing and he would come into mma with the highest level of striking out there. if the likes of daley can be a successful mma fighter who hasnt got much wrestling/bjj himself then given time i dont see why paco couldnt be a match

a top class boxer who's ranked as one of the best in the world will obviously have the talent as a fighter to be able to learn MMA and possibly adapt. If you can become a world champion in boxing then you must have a natural aptitude for fighting. However, as has been mentioned with the different rules in boxing many of them would be vulnerable to kicks, knees and takedowns if they couldn't break their boxing habits. The likes of Pacman, Haye etc probably would make good MMA fighters if they had chosen that path as younger men; instead they chose to pursue boxing. This debate will probably never satisfactorily be settled because any fighter that has achieved world class status must be fully committed in their career to their chosen sport thus cross over is going to be highly unlikely in the case of most champions.

Hobo wrote:I dont think he will.

He might enjoy it but if he is champion of the world in Boxing and earning mega bcks, why go into MMA to start again and get pennies?

All talk from the biggest mouth in boxing.

You could ask the same about Brock Lesnar, but I cant see this happening.

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:

Hobo wrote:I dont think he will.

He might enjoy it but if he is champion of the world in Boxing and earning mega bcks, why go into MMA to start again and get pennies?

All talk from the biggest mouth in boxing.

You could ask the same about Brock Lesnar, but I cant see this happening.

Not really... Lesner wasn't in Wrestling at the time he joined the UFC and he didnt leave the mega bucks of Pro-wrestling for the UFC either, he left the mega bucks of wrestling for the potential of more mega bucks in American Football.

Only after he failed (although came very close in my understanding) at this did he decide to come to the UFC (again though in comparision to other fighters for mega bucks).

gibbo104 wrote:

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:

Hobo wrote:I dont think he will.

He might enjoy it but if he is champion of the world in Boxing and earning mega bcks, why go into MMA to start again and get pennies?

All talk from the biggest mouth in boxing.

You could ask the same about Brock Lesnar, but I cant see this happening.

Not really... Lesner wasn't in Wrestling at the time he joined the UFC and he didnt leave the mega bucks of Pro-wrestling for the UFC either, he left the mega bucks of wrestling for the potential of more mega bucks in American Football.

Only after he failed (although came very close in my understanding) at this did he decide to come to the UFC (again though in comparision to other fighters for mega bucks).

...and there are more megabucks in MMA for him (for less work I might add) than in Wrestling.

Lesnar couldve walked back to wrestling, and he was earning a lot more doing that with all the sponsorships and image rights, than he did from UFC when he first came over. Even if he had made the cut and got a squad place in a football his earnings would have been modest comapred to what he was getting in wrestling.
Theres really no that much money in MMA, the global TV audiences compared to boxing are tiny.
Lesnars decision to give NFL a crack, and then MMA was based on his desire to compete not financial ones.

For Haye theres no chance that any MMA organisation could come close to matching the money he got payed for boxing matches even if he was a good freakshow draw. Again if he were going to do it it would be because he fancies the challenge, not because he thinks he could make more money that way.
Lesnar did that. I cant see Haye doing it, if he wanted to compete and fight for pride he could stay in boxing and keep earning big purses.