David Haye is worried that Vitali Klitschko will retire rather than fight him.
For months the Brit has been calling the Ukrainian out. And it is the only fight he wants, no matter when or where it happens.
Haye would love to see it signed and sealed for the summer but believes the boxing world, never mind a fierce rival, may not see Vitali Klitschko in the ring again.
“We spent a lot of time working on the contract when he fought Manuel Charr in terms of finance,” Haye told Sky Sports.
“That side of things is agreed so it’s just for him to agree a date and a venue – if he wants to do it.
“They said fight Derek Chisora, so of course I fought him and beat him – in a much better fashion than Vitali did – but I haven’t heard from him for months.
“So I can kind of assume that he’s retiring and is just waiting to officially announce his retirement.”
Haye understands that Klitschko’s political career is taking up more of his time the older he gets, but hopes once it has settled down, the heavyweight showdown will come to fruition.
The Londoner says he will wait as long as it takes, but realistically wants it sorted by the summer if he is to get another crack at a Klitschko.
“The way I see it is the longer Vitali leaves it, the worse it is for him,” he said.
“I’m 32, he’s 41, so I could leave it five years and still be 37, but he’d be pushing on 50! It’s up to him.
“The way I see it is if it doesn’t happen by the summer, I’d be very surprised if it ever does.”
If a Klitschko deal is done though, we still won’t see Haye in the ring until then.
He has fought just once – against Chisora – since losing to Wladimir in July 2011 but would not bother with a warm-up fight if his chance to beat the brother came his way.
“If you look at my recent record, I’ve boxed once a year and that it suits me down to the ground,” he said.
“People use the phrase ring-rust but that is only brought out when they put in a bad performance. I’ve not looked ring rusty in my last fight and that was a year after I lost to Klitschko.
“I thought I was razor-sharp to be honest and I thought I was firing on all cylinders. It was the best of me in terms of heavyweight performances.
“I won’t need a warm-up fight. I don’t believe in them. I’ve had enough amateur fights and professional fights to know how to peak and train and how to get my body optimised. And I’ll do that.”
