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David Haye has warned his opponent Joe Fournier will be “wiped out” but admits he was “riddled with injuries” before his return to the ring this weekend.
The former heavyweight world champion will end a three-year absence from boxing when he faces Fournier in Florida on Saturday.
Haye accepted the fight after a heated argument during a recent vacation with Fournier, but insists he tried to dissuade his former training partner from the fight.
The two-weight defending champion told Sky Sports how Fournier told him: “‘If we fight now, I would win.’
“I was like, ‘I’ll tell you what, when we get back to London, go down to the gym. Put on 18-ounce gloves, a helmet. If you can last four laps, I’ll be amazed.
“But I guarantee you after two laps you would say that’s enough. You will not be able to continue. “
“He said ‘forget it, if you’re really confident why don’t we do it for real?’
“I said ‘you’ll be devastated with 10-ounce gloves. No way.’
“He said ‘no, no, no. Let’s do it!'”
Haye had announced his retirement after a fifth-round loss to Tony Bellew in their rematch at the O2 in May 2018.
In their first fight, Haye had ruptured his Achilles tendon in an 11th round knockout loss to Bellew in March 2017, and he fears that Fournier’s fight would put further pressure on his body. brittle.
“I take this seriously because someone 40 years old and riddled with injuries has to take it,” said Haye.
“If I don’t take it seriously and focus 100% on training, I broke an Achilles tendon two fights ago. I didn’t look so smart in it. the fight after that, so I don’t I don’t want that to happen.
“He [Fournier] think if he can pass the first four rounds. He knows I’m dangerous for the first two laps, in his words.
“But if he can get me to take part in these later rounds, his youth [will be a factor] and just the fact that he hasn’t been injured, the fact that he trains regularly and trains. “
Fournier has won all of his previous fights by stoppage, although his last fight was against a musician making his professional debut on the same bill as YouTuber boxer-turned-Jake Paul.
Joe Fournier once fought with Haye
“He actually knows me pretty well, because we used to train a lot together,” said Haye. He boxed on my undercard when I first came back in 2016. He was one of my training partners at the time. As. Obviously, I wasn’t going all-in on him when we were training.
He must have gained some confidence from it. “He said at the time he thought I would hit harder than me.
“Okay, okay, so we’ll know on September 11 if I still have enough to beat Joe Fournier.”
Haye suggested that Fournier’s fight would be “pretty brutal, pretty quick”, and explained why he wanted a ruthless victory.
“I don’t want to give any unnecessary additional reasons why it might be pear shaped and each round that passes is a round closer to something breaking on my body,” said Haye.
“That my shoulder gets slack, that my Achilles tendon breaks, that the knee is torn. The faster I am done with this, the better for everyone.
“He’s a decent boxer himself, he was ranked in the top 10 by the WBA. He’s not like a guy out of a pub somewhere.
“He was ranked by the WBA so if he’s good enough there, let’s do it.”
Sky Sports Boxe schedule
September 11th
Oscar Valdez vs. Robson Conceicao – WBC Super Featherweight Title
September 25 – Sky Sports ticket office
Anthony Joshua vs. Oleksandr Usyk – IBF, WBA, WBO heavyweight titles
Lawrence Okolie vs Dilan Prasovic – WBO cruiserweight title
October 2
Chris Eubank Jr vs. Sven Elbir
David Avanesyan vs Liam Taylor – European Welterweight Title
Richard Riakpohre vs. Krzysztof Twardowski
Mikael Lawal vs. Steven Ward
October 16
Savannah Marshall vs. Lolita Muzeya – WBO Middleweight Title
Hughie Fury vs. Christian Hammer
24 october
Jamel Herring vs. Shakur Stevenson – WBO Super Featherweight Title
November 6
BOXXER tournament
December 18
Josh Taylor vs Jack Catterall – undisputed welterweight title
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