David Haye has a warning for you: "Don't ever mess with Ricky Gervais!"

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The comedian, actor and star of Derek is a talented enough boxer to do it for real, reckons the former heavyweight champion.

“Ricky Gervais is good enough to have a boxing match. I am 100% serious,” said Haye, speaking on The Clare Balding Show about his work training celebrities.

“[Ricky] actually had a charity boxing match with Grant Bovey a few years back and has kept training ever since. He has about ten years of experience so don’t ever mess with that guy!”

Haye, who has not fought professionally since defeating Derek Chisora in July 2012, admits he enjoys training others as people “love to learn”.

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And as well as Gervais, Haye says he saw some raw talent in an unexpected place – pop star Justin Bieber.

“Justin Bieber, believe it or not, was really good. I know it is the last person you think who would be any good at boxing but he was really good. I wasn’t expecting him to be that good.

“He’s Justin Bieber, you think he is just a little singer but his timing was really good and he could punch hard. I was shocked.”

On the Froch v Groves fight at the end of this month, Haye admits it’s likely to be a close match: “Which way this fight will go, nobody knows.”

David Haye was speaking on The Clare Balding Show. To see the full interview tune in to BT Sport 1 at 8:45pm on Thursday 22 May

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