David Haye Holding Firm on Post-Klitschko Retirement

David Haye tells the Daily Mail that his mind is made up, and he's going to be retired after his July 2 fight with Wladimir Klitschko for the world heavyweight championship:

‘They always say that you're as good as your last fight and since this is my last fight I'd better be damned good because this is how I'm going to be remembered.

‘This is my defining night, my legacy. One of my lives ends in Hamburg and a new David Haye life begins as I fly home with all the belts on July 3.'

... ‘This is it for me so I'm absolutely focused. I'm not just going to be in the ultimate condition but there will not be one single distraction between now and the moment I knock out Klitschko.'

Haye (25-1, 23 KO) is starting to worry me a bit. Usually I just brush off all this retirement business, but something about him sounds and appears truly quite ready to retire, which is not the issue I have, but like a few others, I'm worried that this really is starting to smack of Haye not believing he can actually win this fight, no matter what else he says. He seems almost resigned to a fate against Klitschko, and it's not a fate that has him flying back to London on July 3 with all the gold. I could certainly be reading him exactly wrong, and hope I am, but there's just no fire coming from Haye lately.

I will say that if he wins, it would be a genuine pity to have a 30-year-old champion who backed up all his talk walk away from the sport at a time when the heavyweight division could badly use a fighter with his skills and his character. A pity for boxing fans, I mean.