Tony Bellew suffered a brutal knockout at the hands of but the Ukrainian was not the hardest puncher he faced.
The Usyk left hand which put Bellew flat on his back in the eighth round of their cruiserweight battle in 2018 also put him into retirement, with the Liverpool-born fighter hanging up his gloves at the age of 35.
However, it was a two-fight battle with which left a lasting impression on Bellew. The pair spent years in the cruiserweight division but their first fight in 2017, as well as the rematch in 2018, both took place at heavyweight and were both won by Bellew.
While he concedes that Adonis Stevenson, who inflicted one of the Englishman's three career losses, had natural power, there was no hesitation about Haye offering something none of his other opponents could match.
"Haye was the one who had the most power," Bellew told . "I'm certain on that. Stevenson hit me hard, but I was in there that night without much resistance because of the weight struggles. He could certainly punch.
"I knew Haye's power was going to be a problem from when I sparred him, and he really could bang. There'll be many fighters who fought Haye who'll tell you all about how much power he had."
Despite Usyk's remarkable success in the cruiserweight and heavyweight divisions, and the brutal nature of his Bellew knockout, the 41-year-old was seemingly underwhelmed by the Ukrainian's power. "[Usyk] is not the biggest puncher," said Bellew. "It's a stiff punch. He gets your respect."
Nicknamed 'The Hayemaker', 26 of Haye's 28 professional victories came by way of knockout. Before his CV took a late-career hit with consecutive defeats to Bellew, Haye notched emphatic wins over the likes of Derek Chisora, Audley Harrison and John Ruiz.
The London-born fighter even managed to use his supreme left-hand power to wobble seven-foot giant Nikolai Valuev in the 12th round of their 2009 contest, which saw Haye become a world heavyweight champion for the first time. He would go on to lose the title to Wladimir Klitschko two years later.
On his second defeat to Bellew, which came via a resounding fifth-round knockout, Haye said: "I'm glad it ended as conclusively as it did so it doesn't leave me with any thoughts that 'maybe one day I can do a little bit better, if it wasn't for my Achilles then I could have done it'. I knew that was it."
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