By Erik Thomas: British heavyweight David Haye (22-1, 21 KO’s) is saying that a fight against WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko is close and feels convinced that the fight will be signed and he be fighting the older Klitschko brother on September 12th. This is good news for fans of Haye, who will finally get their chance to see whether Haye has the actual talent to back up his words.

Haye almost blew his chance at meeting the Klitschko brothers when he hurt his back and couldn’t fight Wladimir Klitschko. Some people think that Haye backed out because of money concerns over Setanta, the company that was going to be paying Haye.

While other boxing fans felt that Haye simply lost his nerve when it got close to fight time with Wladimir. I seriously doubt that Haye would back out because of nerves, although I can understand why some people might feel this way about Haye, because when he had a chance to fight a top heavyweight in November 2008, Haye picked an easy opponent in 38-year-old Monte Barrett to fight rather than facing a more dangerous heavyweight.

I suppose it’s the equivalent of Wladimir Klitschko hand picking someone weak to fight. If Wladimir had crowed long and hard for a month beforehand how he was going to be fighting a dangerous top 10 fighter like Haye had done, and then picked out B-class fighter, he would have been ripped apart by the boxing media.

However, it won’t matter once Haye gets his shot at Vitali, whether it be deserved or not. Haye will finally have fought a good heavyweight and if he’s able to pass that test then he’ll get a lot of credit and probably become the most sought after heavyweight in the division.

Haye, though, isn’t doing himself any favors by rushing into the fight without a warm up or two against some credible opponents. A good opponent for Haye to have fought would have been someone like Eddie Chambers, who just defeated Alexander Dimitrenko.

It might not have been a fight that would have prepared him for a fight against 6’7” Vitali in terms of fighting someone of comparable size, but it would have kept Haye busy and would have given him and fans a good indication as to whether or not Haye belongs in the heavyweight division.

Vitali, 37, needs a big named opponent to fight and with Haye he gets exactly what he’s been searching for. Haye might not be as popular as he could have been had he chosen to wait a year before fighting Vitali and instead fought a couple of top 10 fighters, but then again Vitali would be a year older and who knows how much longer the injury-plagued Klitschko can fight before his body gives out on him completely.

Vitali had been considering fights against several potential opponents with Haye, Chris Arreola and Nikolay Valuev being the top three names that he had been thinking about. Valuev might be slightly tainted because of his poor performance against Evander Holyfield in December after beating the 46-year-old Evander by a 12-round majority decision.

Arreola, 27, has fought mostly no named fighters and has been having problems with his weight in his past few fights. He’s actually been looking worse instead of better in the past year as a heavyweight prospect and needs to show some more improvement to get boxing fans excited about a Klitschko-Arreola fight.