Fighting an angry 7ft 2in, 23 stone Russian man-mountain could prove to be child’s play for David Haye. Because the British boxer admits he’s more afraid of his mum than his brutish heavyweight rival Nikolai Valuev.
Speaking to the Mirror as he bids to become Britain’s first world heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis retired in 2003, David says his mum Jane still has him quaking in his boxer boots.
He reveals: “Oh yeah, my mum still tells me off! If she’s not impressed with any stuff I say in the papers I’ll get a slapped wrist.
“I was always brought up to understand that those who don’t listen must feel. So I often found things out the hard way. I don’t like doing anything to upset her. No one likes disappointing their old mum, do they?”
Jane will be at the Nuremberg Arena in Germany tomorrow to see 29-year-old David challenge Valuev, “the Beast from the East”, eight stone heavier and 11 inches taller than her son.
Dubbed David and Goliath, it hardly seems a fair fight. But if the charismatic Bermondsey boy is frightened, he’s not about to show it.
Growing up amid street violence which claimed the lives of friends has given him a steely determination to succeed.
He has worked tirelessly for the last 20 years to reach this point in what has so far been a solid career – 21 knockouts and just one defeat in 23 fights.
David, a former world cruiserweight champion, is not about to run scared now.
He says: “I started competing when I was 10 and I knew that if I was going to be the best I could be I was going to have to make sacrifices. I wanted to be the best athlete I could possibly be and I respected the sport.
“You can’t drink alcohol, you can’t smoke, you have to be in bed early and you must eat healthily. That’s always been drummed into me. So from an early age I focused on my diet and steered clear of smoking or taking drugs. A lot of other kids these days could benefit from the same discipline.”
The second of three sons, David has been boxing since primary school age, fully encouraged and supported by parents Jane and Deron. And without that discipline and love, he acknowledges life could have turned out differently.
He says: “There are some big social problems where I grew up. Kids I grew up with have been shot and killed or sent to prison.
“I used to hang around with them at one stage but boxing took me away. A few used to come to the gym with me but they chose a different way of life. If it hadn’t been for boxing I could have ended up like that as well, undoubtedly. It starts off with drinking and smoking and then they move on to smoking weed and it escalates from there.
“To be a successful boxer, the last thing you need to be doing is turning up to the gym stoned. You’re going to get beaten up if you do that. “No way in a million years do I feel I’ve missed out. I had a great childhood, I travelled the world as an amateur and I love boxing so none of the sacrifices have been a real problem for me.
“I’ve always had fun and I make sure I let my hair down after a fight.”
Honest, eloquent and approachable, David puts his level-headedness down to a happy home life.
He’s been married to Natasha – who was a childhood friend – for eight years and they are proud parents to 19-month-old Cassius, a nod to David’s boxing idol Muhammad Ali, formerly Cassius Clay.
He says: “I’m not just fighting for myself anymore. I’m fighting for my family and to make sure they’re as comfortable as humanly possible. I’ve never struggled for motivation but since Cass came along I’ve got an extra little drive.”
He hopes Cassius will show similar sporting prowess to himself – but not necessarily in the ring.
“Boxing is a hard sport to get into and I’d only allow him to go for it if he was the best at it,” he says.
“It isn’t the type of sport to be in if you’re not very good!
“Whatever Cass is talented at I’ll support him. If he takes after me he’ll excel in one sport. Before I chose boxing I tried athletics, football and rugby and I was good at all of them. I chose boxing because I felt it was the toughest, the biggest challenge, physically and mentally.”
But David does worry about the kind of world his son is growing up in.
He says: “I’d hate to be a kid growing up now. It’s frightening. People want to stab and shoot each other. I can’t get my head round it. When I go back to Bermondsey, it’s changed. Where the big housing estates used to be there’s now luxury apartments. The youth club I used to go to has been shut down.
“I don’t know where kids go to now. When they finish school they’ve got five or six hours to kill. Where do they go? What do they do? Who do they hang out with? That’s when they get into trouble.
“The more the government can do to get them involved with sport or to give them some focus the better. I’m sure we’d see a reduction in knife and gun crime. There’s no way Cassius is going to be hanging around in the streets. It makes us worried for him.”
Natasha, a constant by David’s side throughout his career, is a vital part of his support network.
“She’s a massive part of the team,” he says.
“We’ve known each other since we were 15 so were friends for a long time before hooking up properly.
“I’d hate to be at this stage of my career and be single. Stability is really important to me – everything comes together perfectly at home and at work.”
His missus is hardened to the rough and tumble of the ring these days and doesn’t wince if David takes a blow.
In fact, she’s not even worried about him this weekend.
He says: “Natasha’s been there since the amateur days so she’s used to it. She knows the sport inside out and that I’m the best in the world so I’m going to be all right.
“I’ve never been a fighter to take much punishment, even the one fight I’ve lost I didn’t get much abuse. So I don’t think about getting hurt. Everyone in the family has got full confidence I’ll find a way to win. They don’t care about the size of him. They trust that I know what I’m doing.”
David’s grand plan is to retire by the time he turns 31.
A win this weekend could set him up for life but he says: “I’m comfortable enough to not have to worry about money. I’m not extravagant. I’m not interested in all that.
“I don’t go without anything but how many cars does one person really need, seriously? Me and Natasha have one each and that’s it.
“I’ve only got a couple more years to achieve everything I want to. I just want to be the No.1 heavyweight on the planet.”
And if he isn’t… well, he may just have his mum to contend with.
* Haye versus Valuev is live on Sky Box Office tomorrow night.