Exclusive - Haye: ‘I’ve achieved more than people believed I could’

David Haye has told talkSPORT he can hold his head high after announcing his retirement from boxing.

Haye had been urged to fight on after his disappointing display against Wladimir Klitschko in July, when he lost his WBA heavyweight title on a unanimous points decision, but has stuck to his promise to quit the game at the age of 31.

And the Bermondsey-born fighter has hit back at critics who say his career will now be unfulfilled, insisting he has nothing to prove, having been world champion at cruiserweight and heavyweight.

He told Hawksbee and Jacobs: “I’m happy with my achievements. I was world cruiserweight champion, undisputed cruiserweight champion, heavyweight champion of the world, and defended the European title three times.

“I’ve achieved a lot more than people believed I could do. I was never the biggest cruiserweight out there, let alone going up there and being heavyweight champ. I fell short in my unification fight against Wladimir Klitschko and always wanted to unify all the titles but it was not meant to be and I’ve got to learn to live with that.

“I’m happy at what I’ve done, particularly in the heavyweight scene. I got people talking about the heavyweights. Heavyweight boxing wasn’t even screened on television until I came along.

“I had the John Ruiz fight and even my fight with Monte Barrett was an exciting fight. It was my first heavyweight fight against a top ten dangerous guy - a guy who has just beaten David Tua recently.

“I’m happy with my accomplishments. I didn’t fulfill my ultimate goal of unifying the titles but falling short of that very few people can claim what I’ve achieved.”

The Klitschko brothers' promoter Bernd Boente has said he is confident Haye will come out of retirement to fight Vitali next year.

But Haye said: “I very much doubt that [I will come back]. Bernd is just trying to get some publicity for his fighter because Bernd knows that Vitali can’t get any publicity or sort of hype in Britain if he talks about the guy he's going to be fighting, Chris Arreola.

"Instead of just going ahead and announcing the fight he will talk about wanting to fight me just to get some press in the UK, in the hope a UK broadcaster will buy the fight."