By Chris Williams: It looks as if David Haye got some really bad news today when the breaking story about WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko choosing to fight a unification bout with WBA champion Nikolai Valuev rather than opting to fight Haye in September.

Haye, 28, has been previously counting on the older Klitschko brother fighting him in September after he blew his big chance to fight IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko when Haye came up with a sudden back problem that made it necessary for him to pull out of the fight with Wladimir.

It seems as if Haye miscalculated the effect that it would have on Wladimir, because Haye tried to get him to postpone the fight for three weeks, but Wladimir wasn’t going for that option, saying that he didn’t trust whether Haye would be ready at even that time (July 11th).

Wladimir easily replaced Haye with Ruslan Chagaev and went on to destroy him in a 9th round retirement by Chagaev’s corner. Wladimir won’t be fighting Haye any time soon, because Wladimir made it clear after the fight that he plans on fighting his IBF mandatory Alexander Povetkin next, and then the winner of the Alexander Dimitrenko vs. Eddie Chambers bout for Wladimir’s WBO heavyweight title.

That leaves Haye out in the cold so to speak. The question is who is Haye now going to fight? He can always dig up another journeyman to fight or go hunt down Monte Barrett or another bottom ranked heavyweight to look good against.

However, I would strongly advise against Haye doing that. Wladimir made mention about Haye needing to earn his way into a title shot and by going the back door by facing lesser heavyweights rather than the top fighters, it will give the impression that Haye doesn’t have the desire to step it up and put his abilities to a test against a top talent in the heavyweight division.

However, Haye really needs to prove people wrong or at least go down trying. I would suggest that Haye stay away from journeyman or 38-year-old opponents and go after someone like Chris Arreola, Kevin Johnson, Dimitrenko, Povetkin, Chambers, Juan Carlos Gomez, Lamon Brewster, Odlanier Solis or Denis Boytsov. Nothing less than these fighters would be respected by the boxing community at large, many of who are tired of Haye’s talking without backing it up in the ring.

For obvious reasons, the chances of a fight with Dimitrenko, Chambers and Povetkin would seem remote at this time because two of them will be the mandatory challengers for Wladimir’s titles. However, that still leaves Solis, Boytsov, Brewster, Johnson and Gomez as potential opponents.

Haye has already been stopped by Solis as an amateur years ago, and this would be a good opportunity for Haye to avenge the defeat. Solis isn’t nearly as slender as he was back in his Olympic days, having put on sixty plus pounds of muscle and fat since then and now weighing a porky 262 pounds on a 6’2” frame. However, Solis would still be a huge leap up in competition from Barrett, who proved that he was able to hurt Haye in their bout in November.

Solis has great hand speed for a fighter weighing as much as he does and has good power as well. Haye would do well if he were able to stop Solis or even get the victory for that matter. Somehow, I tend to doubt that Haye would be inclined to fight a dangerous opponent like Solis, even though it would go a long ways towards proving that Haye has the ability to beat the top heavyweights in the division.

Johnson, 29, would be another great pick for a fight. Johnson is ranked #4 in the WBA and is unbeaten with a 22-0 record. He doesn’t have much power but has an excellent jab and a great chin. This wouldn’t be a fight which Haye could win by throwing an occasional pot shot or minor flurry. Haye would have to get in the trenches with Johnson and try to outwork him over the long haul.

Lamon Brewster, 36, has a lot of miles on him and might be someone that Haye could beat. However, Brewster (35-4, 30 KO’s) still punches very hard and is capable of knocking Haye cold with one punch. Haye would have to run most of the fight because Brewster would be looking to turn the bout into a dog fight at close range.

Brewster may not be nearly as fast as Haye, but he has a great chin and a huge left hook and he’d put Haye down sooner or later. Haye would likely get overconfident after seeing how slow that Brewster is and think he can get away with something at close range and get tagged by one of Brewster’s big hooks and taken out. I doubt seriously that Haye will fight Brewster.

Boytsov, 23, ranked #5 in the WBA, would be a good option, although Boytsov is still pretty green at this point. However, he’d still be a good pick for Haye to fight because Boytsov (25-0, 20 KO’s) is unbeaten and is an excellent pressure fighter. He likes to put his punches together and is capable of mounting prolonged attacks at times like the one in which he knocked out Taras Bidenko in the 6th round in his last fight in on June 26th. I highly doubt that Haye would want to take on a dangerous opponent like Boytsov.

Gomez (44-2, 35 KO’s) was recently stopped in the 9th round by Vitali Klitschko in March. Although he was stopped, Gomez didn’t make it easy for Vitali and was able to hang around for awhile making Vitali work for the victory.

I think Gomez would be a good pick for Haye. Gomez doesn’t punch hard and is getting up there in age at 35. He’s a southpaw, though, and is a crafty and hard to hit cleanly. Haye would have to work a little harder than he did in his fight with Barrett but I still see it as a winnable fight for Haye.

More than likely, I see Haye sticking to fighting local heavyweights in Britain, someone like Matt Skelton or possibly Danny Williams. In other words, to safe picks that will give Haye a better chance of looking good. Of course, Haye wouldn’t be proving anything by fighting either of them but then again Haye wouldn’t have nearly the same chance of being knocked out like he would if he fought Arreola, Johnson, Boytsov, Brewster, Chambers, Dimitrenko or Gomez.