WLADIMIR Klitschko says that he remains ready to fight David Haye in a heavyweight unification bout this July.
The 34-year-old has agreed to reschedule his IBF, IBO and WBO defence against Dereck Chisora for 30 April, and insists that he is prepared to fight Haye just weeks later on a pencilled-in date of July 2. Haye’s next fight could be a defence against mandatory challenger Ruslan Chagaev, but Klistchko says that clash need not happen.
“I don’t need a half a year to prepare for Haye,” the Ukrainian said.
“Me fighting Chisora first is good promotion for the fight because the guy is also British and very loud.”
“I don’t take David Haye as a super-special fight. I’m always in shape anyway. He could give Chagaev step-aside money and then I’m going to be there with nobody to fight.
“Because of our history before, I would fight him on 2 July and we would work on the contract, but I would fight Chisora first.
“There have a been a lot of lies from David Haye and [trainer] Adam Booth. We found a date, 2 July, to fight him, but I don’t trust these guys any more.”
Haye and Klitschko had signed up to a fight in 2009 which the Brit had to pull out of after picking up a back injury. Since then the much-demanded fight has yet to happen, despite the pair coming to the table for negotiations on more than one occasion.
With Klitschko’s brother Vitali signing up to a defence against Odlianer Solis in March, the likelihood of Haye challenging either of the siblings before his planned retirement date of October 2011 appears to be waning.
“He’s telling everyone ‘I’m going to retire by the end of the year and I will have my legacy'”, Klitschko added.
“He’s going to have a legacy for the Audley Harrison fight – the most exciting heavyweight fight in history.
“He has no legacy whatsoever. He has this terrible disease and he has to retire? What is that? This is total nonsense. He is playing the media.
“He will not retire because he’s a liar, liar, liar. From the beginning to the end, he’s a loser liar. That’s the truth about this man.
“This guy will eventually fight me.”(Eurosport)