DAVID HAYE has hailed Deontay Wilder as the "hardest punching heavyweight ever" and revealed just how powerful he really is.
Wilder has 42 knockouts in his 43 wins, establishing him as one of the most destructive hitters of all time.
And former world champion Haye can attest to that, even if it was in bigger 18oz sparring gloves with headguards on.
The Brit hired Wilder as a sparring partner before his proposed fight with Tyson Fury, which he later pulled out of.
And Haye still remembers just how hard the Bronze Bomber hits, all these years later.
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He told BT Sport: “I truly think he is the hardest punching heavyweight ever, I know that maybe sounds like an exaggeration.
"I got hit by Wilder in sparring. I’ve been hit by Wladimir Klitschko, on the chin with 10 ounce gloves on.
"There was more effect from Wilder hitting me on the top of the head, with 18 ounce gloves on and I was wearing a head guard – and it wasn’t even clean.
"After that, I remember thinking, ‘This guy is going to do something.’ He was wild and he was all over the place. . . but the power.”
Haye, now 42, withdrew from fighting Fury after suffering a cut in sparring and later a shoulder injury that required surgery.
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In the years following, Fury, 34, went on to three times fight Wilder, 37, drawing one and winning the subsequent rematches.
He is now set to face Oleksandr Usyk, 35, in the heavyweight division's first four-belt title unification.
Wilder bounced back from consecutive defeats to Fury by knocking out Robert Helenius, 38, in round one of his October return.
