David Haye was viewed as one of the biggest punchers in boxing during his era.
He began his career in the cruiserweight division, where his heavy hands led him to become unified cruiserweight world champion with knockout victories over Enzo Maccarinelli and Jean-Marc Mormeck.
He then moved up to the heavyweight division where he claimed world honours again, with Evander Holyfield and Oleksandr Usyk just some of the small group of names that have also managed to achieve that.
Haye was defeated at heavyweight by Wladimir Klitschko in 2011, and then at the end of his career by Tony Bellew in 2017 and 2018 which prompted him to retire from the sport, but neither of them came to mind when ‘The Hayemaker’ was asked who hit him hardest.
Instead, he told IFL TV about the time he was hit so hard it almost derailed his career before it even really got going.
“Monte Barrett hit me hard, and Lolenga Mock in my fourth fight. He wasn’t even a cruiserweight he was like a light heavyweight and super-middleweight. He hit me with a perfect shot on my temple and nearly wiped me out. I had to get back to my feet and battle my way through and scrape through.”
The fight between Haye and Mock took place in September 2003, with the Brit recovering from a second round knockdown to stop Mock in the fourth round.
As referenced by Haye, Mock spent the majority of his career campaigning at super-middleweight, having 60 fights total and winning 43 of them, with the knockout loss to Haye serving as the only time the Danish fighter was ever stopped.
As for the fight between Haye and Barrett, that ended in a fifth round stoppage win for the Brit against the former world heavyweight title challenger.