David Haye has retracted his claims that he bet on himself to knock Audley Harrison out in the third round of the their world title fight on Saturday night.

The pair met in Manchester where Haye successfully defended his WBA heavyweight belt with a third-round stoppage of Harrison, with the challenger barely registering a punch in a one-sided bout.

Speaking after the fight, Haye claimed to have backed himself to win in the third round, saying that his friends and family had also profited.

But he has now played that down, insisting that the only thing he earned from the fight was his purse.

Speaking to Radio 5 Live he said: "I didn't physically go into a betting shop and say 'here's x amount of money'. What I did say was I would knock Audley out in three rounds.

"If he came out earlier I would have knocked him out earlier. My prediction was the third round and I told a lot of people that."

Haye also denied having bets placed on his behalf, adding: "I don't need to. I made enough money from the fight anyway. I don't need to earn extra money, but I told a lot of people around me. It makes the fight a little more exciting for people.

"There was no online betting. It did feel like I'd bet on myself because a lot of people had put money on it, family members and what not.

"If it had gone into the fourth round I knew people would have lost a lot of money and I'd have felt a bit guilty.

"When I told them it was 11/1 a lot of people got on and made a lot of money out of it. When I told people it got out and it tumbled after that.

"I told a lot of journalists. They said 'when do you know' and I said 'after the weigh-in'. I did the weigh-in, looked in his eyes and saw him trembling and said third.

"He didn't give me anything to counter.

"I could have pressed the action more but I chose to wait for the perfect opportunity and it happened to come in the third round. If I'd have told people I was going to stop him in the first round I would have. But I wanted to give people a few more rounds."

Haye admitted that he did not know it was against the British Boxing Board of Control's regulations to bet on when you were going to win a fight, and their secretary Robin Smith revealed his surprise at this, but accepted Haye was telling the truth with his denial of betting.

He said: "I was quite surprised and disappointed. Every year we send out the rules and regulations and if he'd have read it he'd have known.

"I think from what David has said, and I heard the interview live, I'm fairly happy that everything was okay."