David Haye has suggested one of the current crop of heavyweights doesn’t really belong at world level.

Haye himself was one of the best fighters on the planet during his peak years. He was a unified cruiserweight champion who won three of the four major belts before then moving up to heavyweight in 2009.

When he beat Nikolai Valuev in April 2010, he became one of only two men to conquer both divisions alongside Evander Holyfield, though Oleksandr Usyk later matched the feat.

Haye defended his belt against John Ruiz and Audley Harrison before ultimately falling short against Wladimir Klitschko at the very top of the sport.

Speaking to talkSPORT Boxing, Haye suggested Fabio Wardley lacks the schooling to really stay at world level going forward after his rematch loss to Daniel Dubois over the weekend.

“Wardley made no adjustments in terms of the fight he was in. He’s going to really struggle staying at this level. I really like Wardley; amazing ability in regards to toughness, you can’t touch his toughness, but the unfortunate part is he’s missed too many lessons earlier on in his career.

“The balance, you know, he’s too far on his front leg. He could continue in this division and have some great fights, but it’s not going to be great for his health.”

Wardley was stopped inside two rounds in his WBO heavyweight title fight against Dubois, despite holding his own in the first fight and lasting until round 11, having had ‘DDD’ down twice early on.

The Ipswich man has already been offered a route back with his promoter if he wishes to carry on and once he has rested well, as Usyk’s decision to vacate his world titles has opened up new opportunities, with Murat Gassiev holding a WBA title, Agit Kabayel the WBC champion and Filip Hrgovic holding the IBF belt.