Haye fuelled by Harrison hatred

David Haye has vowed to channel his "hatred" of Audley Harrison when he defends his WBA heavyweight title having plastered his gym with posters of his rival for the last two months.

Haye fights bitter rival and fellow Londoner Harrison at Manchester's MEN Arena in a fight only made because he was unable to secure a unification bout with one of the Klitschko brothers.

He has had no problem motivating himself for the fight, however, as the pair fell out in 2006 after a heated sparring session and the animosity has grown since then.

Haye, 30, said: "When you fight you try to hate every opponent, it's only for that 12-round period.

"In training you can use hate as fuel. It's not a good thing, I try not to do it as much as possible, but when you're tired and drained and hitting a bag needing extra energy...I've got posters of Audley all over my gym and when I'm starting to slow down I look at it and that's it, the pace goes back up. I get that little bit more out of myself."

Asked whether he will let bygones be bygones after the fight, Haye said: "I haven't thought a second past the knockout.

"I'm just focusing on the fight, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it but at this present moment in time, all I'm thinking about is inflicting as much punishment as quickly as possible on Audley Harrison's head."