"If you move up in weight as the undisputed champion, of course you go into the top five"
Tuesday 17 March 2020 11:14, UK
David Haye is Derek Chisora's manager and will lead him into battle against Oleksandr Usyk – but won’t call him one of the world's top five heavyweights yet.
Usyk and Chisora will clash on May 23, live on Sky Sports Box Office, with world title aspirations at stake.
We asked former world heavyweight champion Haye to pick the division's top five fighters…
David Haye told Sky Sports: Chisora isn't in it now. He has to beat Usyk first.
I know Chisora belongs there but nobody else does yet - that's just my biased opinion as his manager.
If he wins against Usyk that significantly puts him in the top five and gets him a chance to fight Anthony Joshua.
Can you imagine Joshua vs Chisora? Absolutely huge. Business is business and Chisora is a businessman. He wants the big accolades, the history, his name up in lights.
No 5 is because Oleksandr Usyk was significantly better than any other cruiserweight you've got to go into [the heavyweight rankings] at this level.
If you move up in weight as the undisputed champion, of course you go into the top five. It's the natural thing to do and I understand the WBO have made him the mandatory challenger to the heavyweight title, because he is so good.
No 4? Dillian Whyte and Alexander Povetkin are up there, for sure. We'll work that out [on May 2 live on Sky Sports Box Office]. I think Whyte will win by knockout, it's the perfect fight for him. Povetkin will be right in Whyte's face but anybody that does that will realise he's solid.
No 3 is Deontay Wilder. Maybe this is as good as it gets for Wilder, or maybe not. Maybe his fight against Fury was like Anthony Joshua's first fight with Andy Ruiz Jr. It happens so you can't write Wilder off. He has wins over good fighters like Luis Ortiz.
No 2 is very, very close behind No 1 and is Anthony Joshua but only because he has a blemish on his record. That's the only reason.
Joshua has only lost to Andy Ruiz Jr and rectified that in the rematch.