In his recently released autobiography, Anderson described a scene in the Australian dressing room during the 2006-2007 Ashes series where he took on an "arrogant" Michael Clarke, striking him with a batsman's pad.
Anderson said he was encouraged to do so by former Australian batsman Damien Martyn.
Hayden, who was in the dressing room at the time, told Triple M's Rush Hour show that there was less to the incident than Anderson made out.
"This has been a big incident hasn't it; in reality James Anderson was a B-Grade bowler that got his arse-whipped by Australia that many time's it's not even funny," Hayden said.
"Frankly I actually don't really care what Jimmy Anderson's got to say, but, he has actually frankly improved his bowling, thank goodness."
Hayden also alluded to his own clash with Martyn later that night. The middle order batsman announced his international retirement two days later.
"... We'd been hammered over in England so I wasn't pulling my punches, nor was anyone else in that particular series - you were either on board with Australia wanting to hand them the absolute whipping that they got, or you weren't," Hayden said.
Hayden, a member of the Order of Australia, also expressed his dismay that Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar had just received an Order of Australia Medal.
"... The reality of it is he's living in India. I can kind of get their point, but for me I think it should be exclusive to Australians," Hayden said.
"There's things that are sacred amongst our country. I kind of understand the point of the fact that he has been such an iconic figure here in Australia and there's an enormous population of Indian's that are working here and living here very happily and in harmony with Australia that have naturalised and I think that's a great part of our country, how multi-cultural that we are.
"Now, if Sachin was living in Australia - give him the Prime Minister's gong I reckon - but the reality of it is he's living in India."
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