Trash Talk: David Haye’s top ten quotes

Ahead of his fight with Wladimir Klitschko in Germany, we look back on some of David ‘Hayemaker’ Haye’s most memorable sound bites over the years.

By Conor Heneghan

David Haye and Wladimir Klitschko go head to head in Hamburg in one of the most anticipated heavyweight bouts in years.

Whether it’s because of his dated corn-row haircut or his smug-even-for-a-boxer attitude, Haye isn’t exactly universally popular and there will be many hoping he gets his comeuppance against the man known as Doctor Steelhammer.

Never shy of shooting his mouth off, Haye has waxed lyrical about everything from gang rape to ugly ring girls over the years. Here are some of his best quotes.

On Wladimir Klitschko’s attempts to intimidate him:

"I don't know who he (Wladimir) was trying to impress in that homo-erotic video of his doing bicep-curls. It didn't impress me."

A somewhat inappropriate prediction prior to his fight with Audley Harrison:

"This will be so one-sided it will be like a gang rape."

To his one-time good chum Harrison:

“You're going to get violated in that ring. I am going to close the curtain on the joke that is the Audley Harrison show.”

On a fairly obvious obstacle to avoid if you want to become a success in boxing, in an interview with the Daily Mirror in 2009.

“To be a successful boxer, the last thing you need to be doing is turning up to the gym stoned. You’re going to get beaten up if you do that.”

On the giant with ‘inner beauty’, Nikolai Valuev:

"He is the ugliest thing I have ever seen. I have watched Lord of the Rings and films with strange looking people, but for a human being to look like he does is pretty shocking."

On his preparations for the Valuev fight:

"In between training sessions, I'll often watch DVDs of King Kong, Godzilla or Frankenstein, just to keep my mind on the task in hand and remind myself of the magnitude of the challenge."

More on Valuev:

“Valuev looks like the bogeyman. Kids try to remove his mask when he goes trick-or-treating on Halloween."

On the fight between Vitali Klitschko and Kevin Johnson

“They may be big in Switzerland, but so are yodellers, and nobody wants to watch them fight. Heavyweight title fights should be huge events, not an afterthought in a country most famous for producing chocolate."

On his, eh, meticulous preparations before a fight:

“I abstain from any kind of release for six weeks before a fight, no self-pleasure, nothing. Even in my dreams, I'll be about to have sex with a beautiful girl and I'll say, 'Sorry darling, I'm fighting in a few weeks.' That's control, bro, when you're turning down a hot chick in your subconscious."

On why he chooses his own ring girls:

“I do, but only because earlier in my career, the promoters would organise these girls and you'd be sitting on your stool between rounds and you'd look up and see a complete and utter minger walking around the ring.

"It was actually a distraction. You'd be thinking, 'Why is she in the ring and what possible good can come from her being there?'"