Britain’s newest heavyweight world champion was still nursing a broken hand yesterday after winning the WBA title against giant Russian Nikolai Valuev.
Adam Booth, Haye’s trainer, revealed that discussions with Wembley Stadium are already under way following his victory and the fight could take place next summer.
“Wembley have already been on to me,” said Booth. “Haye against a Klitschko, Wladimir or Vitali, would be one of the biggest fights in heavyweight history.”
The gate receipts from a 100,000 Wembley crowd, combined with his percentage of the pay-per-view TV subscriptions, could earn the London-born champion an estimated £20m.
But Haye, 29, still celebrating his 12-round majority points success over 7ft 2in Valuev, first has to defend his title with a mandatory fight against John Ruiz.
“Ruiz is the mandatory challenger for the WBA title so if I don’t fight him they’ll take the title from me, and I don’t fancy giving it up after winning it,” said Haye. “I feel I can knock out John Ruiz.”
The fighter was compared to Muhammad Ali by some English reporters, but Haye admits he is uneasy with the comparison.
“I felt a bit uncomfortable seeing that,” he said. “Ali is the greatest and I’ve had one heavyweight title win. So I’ve got a long, long way to go. As long as I am talked about in the same breath in 50 years maybe as a great heavyweight, then I will have done my job.”
His fight against Ruiz will almost certainly be held at the O2 Arena with victory setting up a lucrative unifying heavyweight division fight against one of the Klitschkos.
Ruiz was paid to step aside and let Haye have the chance of taking the World Boxing Association’s belt from Valuev. But the contest is unlikely to take place before next May with Haye forced to let his broken hand, sustained in the second round against Valuev, heal completely.
“Ruiz is a good fighter, very underrated,” said Haye. “But I will upset him pretty badly. He’s not the most entertaining of former champions but he’s won championships on several occasions and you don’t do that through being a bad fighter. I don’t feel I’d struggle with him in any way, though.
“I said I want to be unified champion and the Klitschkos are definitely in my sights. I am not fussed which one it is. Whichever one is available, we’ll sit round a table and make it happen. Fingers crossed they retain their titles and we can have a huge, huge, unification fight.”
Wladimir, at 33 the younger of the brothers, holds the IBF and WBO versions of the heavyweight championship. But it is 38-year-old Vitali, the WBC champion and generally regarded as the world’s best heavyweight, who has already made it clear he would be willing to face Haye.
Richard Schaefer, Haye’s American promoter, is already excited by the potential global spectacle of a Haye v Klitschko fight.
“One of the Klitschkos against David Haye would a fight with huge global interest,” said Schaefer. “For so long have we been asking for a new charismatic heavyweight champion of the world.
“If he fights in the US against a Klitschko I have no doubt that the total global receipts would probably be like De La Hoya-Mayweather, close to $120m.”
