By Jim Dower: Ex-cruiserweight now turned heavyweight David Haye (21-1, 20 KOs) has once again refused to let up on his pressure on IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (50-3, 44 KOs), whom he has been after steadily for the past two months trying to line up a fight. In a press release from Setanta sports, Haye, 27, said “He’s [Wladimir Klitschko] universally recognized as the number one fighter, so that’s the guy I have to go after.”

Thus far, Klitschko, 32, has mostly been silent about Haye’s constant challenges, though recently Haye cornered Klitschko at a charity event and called him out in front of a large horde of media personal. Klitschko, looking a little timid and at a loss for words, asked Haye how much he weights and then told him to get in line. In other words, Klitschko was seemingly not interested in a bout with the young knockout artist from the cruiserweight division. It is odd, though, because Klitschko as good as he is, has been without a true career-defining fight. At the same time, he’s never had an opponent nearly as popular as Haye, one that would bring in millions of dollars for both of them.

For this reason it seems almost insane for Klitschko to turn his back on Haye at this point, for it’s the best opportunity that Klitschko will likely get for the biggest payday of his career. Certainly a bout against the likes of Tony Thompson, Alexander Povetkin or Samuel Peter, aren’t going to bring in money anywhere close to what Klitschko would get in a fight with Haye. More than that, a single fight against Haye would likely bring in more cash for Wladimir than all of those fights combined because of Haye’s huge public appeal. The best thing, though, is that Wladimir would get a lot more respect from the fans, should he defeat Haye soundly.

Heck, Wladimir would get a lot more respect just by calling Haye’s bluff by forcefully accepting his challenge and meeting him in a press conference. Wladimir’s other upcoming opponents, Thompson and Povetkin, can be paid to wait a little longer so Wladimir can get this fight out of the way. However, by Wladimir continuing to avoid a popular fighter like Haye, it strikes me that he’s afraid of Haye, afraid to lose his title or his status as the number #1 heavyweight in the division. Wladimir doesn’t need to worry about his titles, because even if he does lose, one of the other champions, either Ruslan Chagaev or Samuel Peter, would jump at the chance to fight Wladimir under any circumstance.

In particular, Peter, who has bad blood with Wladimir due to his loss to him in 2005. For this reason, Wladimir needs to forget about his dull title defenses against Thompson and Povetkin, and go after the real money, the fight the fans really want to see. No one could care less about seeing Wladimir fighting Thompson or Povetkin, and he could fight them 100 times and the fans would still barely acknowledge the fight’s existence. I’m sure Wladimir can do without his mandatory’s for a little while longer so he can get this fight out of the way.

As much as I think Wladimir needs to take the fight with Haye, I doubt that he will, however. I believe he’s not really courageous enough to take the fight, unlike Vitali, his brother, a very bold and ambitious fighter, who would have likely taken the fight the second that Haye called him out. Vitali’s smart enough to realize that he’d be better off fighting one hard fight than having to deal with 10 smaller fights to make the same money. Not sure why Wladimir doesn’t seem to be getting this message? Is he afraid, perhaps?