By Sean McDaniel: WBA heavyweight champion David Haye (25-1, 23 KO’s) has changed his mind about retiring at 31 on his birthday in October if he’s able to beat IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (55-3, 49 Ko’s) on July 2nd in Hamburg, Germany. With WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (42-2, 39 Ko’s) busy fighting Tomasz Adamek in September in Poland, Haye won’t have a realistic chance of facing Vitali until December at the earliest. Even that number is far too soon to market a Haye vs. Vitali revenge fight properly.

Haye will have to stay on until 2012 to get the fight with Vitali out of the way. In a recent interview, Haye said he will do just that. He’ll stick around to fight Vitali if Haye beats Wladimir in July. The money obviously is far too good for Haye to retire and just walk away, because a revenge match between the older Klitschko brother and Haye would be huge.

Here is what Haye had to say in an interview at thesun.co.uk: “I’m hoping that after I have knocked out Wladimir, big brother Vitali, who is 39, will want to try to get some kind of revenge for me smashing up his kid brother. Vitali will go the same way, the old man will lose his WBC title and get knocked out cold the same way as his brother.”

There is no question that Vitali will want to avenge Wladimir’s loss if Haye smashes little brother Wladimir. If Haye destroys Wladimir, it will set up the same kind of revenge of the brother scenerio which took place in the past where Vitali destroyed Ross Puritty in an 11th round stoppage in 2001 after Purity defeated Wladimir by a 11th round TKO in 1998. Wladimir returned the favor by defeated Chris Byrd by a lopsided 12 round decision in October 2000 after Byrd had earlier beaten Vitali by a 9th round stoppage in April 2000.