{"id":947908,"date":"2026-05-09T08:22:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T08:22:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/947908\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T08:22:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T08:22:23","slug":"david-haye-admits-he-would-have-swerved-nightmare-fight-with-fabio-wardley-in-his-prime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/947908\/","title":{"rendered":"David Haye admits he would have ‘swerved’ nightmare fight with Fabio Wardley in his prime"},"content":{"rendered":"

Boxing fans are obsessed with past and present matchups.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is the single biggest driver of interaction on any online forum dedicated to the sweet science. <\/p>\n

\"Haye<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Haye picked up belts at cruiserweight and heavyweight at the peak of his powersCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

One hypothetical clash that has been gaining traction lately is a bout between two-weight world champion David Haye<\/a> and reigning WBO heavyweight titlist Fabio Wardley<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Of course, ‘The Hayemaker\u2019s\u2019 best years were spent at cruiserweight, where he unified three of the four 200lbs world titles.<\/p>\n

But he also enjoyed a fruitful stint in boxing’s glamour division, picking up the WBA heavyweight crown in 2009 by slaying 7ft giant Nikolai Valuev in Nuremberg.<\/a><\/p>\n

If both men had competed in the same era, Haye-Wardley would have been a box office attraction between two devastating knockout artists.<\/p>\n

READ MORE ON BOXING He’s a Fab fighter<\/p>\n

However, as Haye candidly admits during an interview with talkSPORT.com, it’s probably a fight he would have ‘swerved’ altogether.<\/p>\n

“It\u00a0would\u00a0have\u00a0been\u00a0very,\u00a0very\u00a0tough,” said Haye.<\/p>\n

“Wardley’s\u00a0got\u00a0a\u00a0style\u00a0I\u00a0wouldn’t\u00a0have\u00a0ideally\u00a0liked\u00a0to have fought.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“He\u00a0can\u00a0take\u00a0a\u00a0shot\u00a0as\u00a0well. Whether I could take him out with one shot remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

“He’s shown he can take world-class heavyweight punch power, and it bounces off of him.<\/p>\n

“If I were to have fought Wardley, I would have tried to outpoint him.<\/p>\n

\"Fabio<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Wardley is the reigning WBO heavyweight champion and puts his belt on the line on SaturdayCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

“I would have realised that by trying to knock him out, you’re going to gas yourself out, and he’s going to come on strong late.<\/p>\n

“So I would have strategically tried to win seven of the 12 rounds because trying to go toe-to-toe with Wardley, yeah, I may land some big shots on him.<\/p>\n

“But he’ll still be standing, and he’ll be swinging back, and he’s a lot bigger than me, he’s strong, he’s hard.<\/p>\n

“So yeah, I probably would have swerved someone with his style because it’s hard to prepare for someone like that, who has such an unorthodox style. <\/p>\n

“He didn’t have that amateur pedigree where you can understand what punches he’s going to throw at what times.<\/p>\n

“He’s developed his own unique style, and it’s very difficult to prepare for such an awkward style.”<\/p>\n

\"Fabio<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Wardley is set to lock horns with Dubois at Manchester’s AO ArenaCredit: GettyDavid Haye breaks down Fabio Wardley vs Daniel Dubois <\/p>\n

Haye is intrigued to see whether Dubois can ‘crack’ the Wardley code when they lock horns in Manchester. <\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking ahead of an exclusive appearance at Paddy’s Sportsbook at The Hippodrome Casino<\/a> for the all-British WBO world heavyweight title clash on Saturday night, Haye added: “[Wardley] has shown a resilience that I haven’t seen in Daniel Dubois<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“He’s taken more punishment than Daniel Dubois and has found a way to win.<\/p>\n

“I’ve seen Daniel Dubois take punishment, and he’s ended up losing the fight.<\/p>\n

“There are more questions around Daniel’s heart than there are around Wardley’s.<\/p>\n

“Dubois will have to decrypt Wardley with his skills because he has shown that he won’t be put away easily.<\/p>\n

Read More on talkSPORT<\/p>\n

Watch Boxing on DAZN<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

*If you click a link in this boxout, we will earn affiliate revenue<\/p>\n

Sign up to DAZN<\/a> to access the definitive subscription for boxing fans.<\/p>\n

Upgrade to DAZN Ultimate<\/a> from just \u00a324.99\/month, guaranteeing access to 185+ fights annually, a minimum of 12 pay-per-views at no extra cost, as well as every Lega Serie A match and other elite football access.<\/p>\n

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“[Justis] Huni, who is a very educated fighter with a great amateur pedigree, was able to hit Wardley and avoid the punches.<\/p>\n

“But Wardley refused to quit, and refused to be disheartened and kept on grinding until he found the shot [to knock him out].”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Boxing fans are obsessed with past and present matchups. It is the single biggest driver of interaction on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":947909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4108],"tags":[1935,4496,5061,14204,5063,66888,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-947908","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-boxing-news","10":"tag-daniel-dubois","11":"tag-david-haye","12":"tag-fabio-wardley","13":"tag-prediction","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=947908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/947909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=947908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=947908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=947908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}