If Haye quits, he does so under a big, black cloud

Former two-weight world champion David 'The Hayemaker' Haye has quit boxing, according to a report in The Sun newspaper.

British Boxing Board of Control secretary Robert Smith confirmed: "I received an email on Monday advising me Haye would not be carrying on.

"The board will discuss it on Wednesday but there is no way we could go against his wish not to renew his boxing licence. Without it, he can't fight."

Haye had always said he would quit the sport on his 31st birthday, a milestone he'll reach on Thursday.

Although it's hard to believe that a boxer at the peak of his supposed powers could walk away from the sport at a relatively young age, a massive hint came with George Groves' move to Frank Warren Promotions.

For those who don't follow the ins and outs of the sport, it appeared that David Haye and Adam Booth - the men behind Hayemaker Boxing who had previously promoted their protege Groves - would rather allow him to go and fight for someone with whom they had been at loggerheads for years rather than go to the trouble of backing him themselves.

Secondly, Booth - trainer and best friend of Haye for many years - was adamant that he would not work with the boxer beyond his promised departure date.

Thirdly, Haye has commanded several whopping PPV-fuelled purses on the bounce. Those days are over and he would have to motivate himself to drop down from seven-figure purses to, perhaps, the lower end of the six-figure bracket.

This could, of course, all be some typically childish, ill-advised PR ruse to provoke an offer from Vitali Klitschko for a comeback fight in 2012.

Yet if this is the end for The Hayemaker, he leaves the sport a very rich and healthy man but one cloaked in ignominy.

Many observers (and I count myself among them) truly believed in him. Fellow fans who didn't share our faith call us stupid and naive. It appears they're right.

Haye has given British boxing fans some great nights - his bloody brawl against Giacobbe Fragomeni; his trip to Paris to get off the canvas and knock out cruiserweight champ, Jean Marc Mormeck; his chilling disposal of Enzo Maccarinelli; his justifiably boring, safety-first, entirely pragmatic win over Nikolai Valuev in Nuremberg.

But ignoring the best-forgotten non-event against Audley Harrison, the enduring memory of Haye will be his meek surrender to Wladimir Klitschko in a Hamburg football stadium in July - his sheepish exit from a rain-lashed ring where talk of decapitations descended into the embarrassing farce of a tough-talking Adonis bleating that his little toe hurt.