By Michael Lieberman: If heavyweights David Haye and Wladimir Klitschko can get by their next opponents, we will be seeing them in June 2009, according to reports from Setanta Sports where Adam Both, the trainer and manager for Haye, stated “We’ve discussed the fight happening next year in June, possibly in England.” However, there are still a lot of obstacles that need to be taken care of before the fight takes place, starting with Haye and Klitschko’s next opponents. Haye, 28, is facing journeyman Monte Barrett, who recently was selected by Haye after looking long and hard for a top ranked heavyweight with a big name.

Barrett, however, appears to be on the downside of his career at 37, having lost three out of his last six fights. This essentially means that Haye, unless he fights another fighter before June 2009, will be getting a title shot after facing only one fighter at heavyweight (unless you count Tomasz Bonin, that is). It’s pretty remarkable, since Haye has yet to prove himself in the heavyweight division and will be getting a shot without working his way to the top like most heavyweight fighters have to traditionally do. His opponent, Barrett, will probably put up a good fight for a round or two but then get taken out in a brutal fashion. However, Barrett has enough power to take Haye out if he’s given a chance at some point.

Haye will have to be extra careful with Barrett, who fights in a compact style and is capable of landing some sneaky right hands. He took Tye Fields, a 6’9″ heavyweight, in his last bout. At this point, Haye is an unknown commodity, given that he’s fought his entire career as a cruiserweight against largely lighter European fighters. He’s done well against them, but its known how he’ll do against a good – not great – American fighter like Barrett.

Never mind the Klitschko fight, which Haye probably has little chance at winning due to his small size, limited reach and soft chin. Haye has done well for himself, talking himself into a bout that he probably doesn’t deserve to be in considering his lack of fights as a heavyweight. However, the ranking bodies, the WBO and WBC, have given Haye a lot of help by pushing him up inside the top five despite him having only one fight at heavyweight over a C-class fighter. The high ranking could turn out to be a curse for Haye, because even with a win over Barrett, that’s just not enough preparation for a fight against Wladimir Klitschko.

For Haye to even have a hope of winning, he would need a considerable amount of fights against quality heavyweights to get good enough to beat Wladimir. Even then, Haye would probably still lose but maybe not as quickly as he’ll probably be in June. Haye probably should scrape the idea of fighting Klitschko at this early stage and try to work his way up the hard way by facing three or four good top 15 ranked heavyweights, starting with Chris Arreola, Alexander Dimitrenko, Eddie Chambers and Toney Thompson.

If Haye can get by those four, then maybe he’s ready to take on one of the Klitschko brothers, but until then, he’s cheating himself by signing for a fight that he has almost zero chance of winning.