Former world champion Carl Froch is one of the many leading names in boxing who has paid tribute to David Haye today after the boxer officially announced his retirement.

Haye had retired before and came back to the sport but today’s announcement was more concrete.

More final.

After back to back defeats to Tony Bellew inside the distance over the last year the old David Haye is no more and was something he acknowledged.

As a boxer who relied on his speed and reflexes as part of his exciting fight style, Haye made the call to hang up the gloves after a glittering career.

Speaking to Sky Sports, Froch said:

“I am glad David has retired, but I hope he won’t be remembered for the two defeats against Tony Bellew, he has had one hell of a fantastic career. Yes, he had one or two too many losses late in his career, but David Haye is one of the best boxers Britain has produced. To be undisputed cruiserweight champion of the world was brilliant, but then he went on to become a heavyweight world champion.”

Froch makes a good point in that just because the two last fights of Haye’s career were losses should not mean that Haye’s entire career should be remembered for that.

Or for the other low points like the Klitschko fight or pulling out of the Tyson Fury fight twice.

Haye had a remarkable career at cruiserweight and when he moved up to heavyweight he did something that very few have done in history – win world titles at both cruiserweight and heavyweight.

A man who always captured the public’s attention, no doubt we’ll hear more from Haye in the coming years.

His punditry work on big fights can be very insightful so there’s a number of things he can do moving forward.