By William Mackay: David Haye isn’t worried about burning any bridges with the Klitschko brothers by him having bailed on a fight with World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko for a fight with WBA heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev.

The way Haye sees it, he may have upset the Klitschko brothers for the time being with his latest pull out, but when he has the WBA title in his possession, the Klitschkos will come seeking him out because they want the money that Haye would bring to them and they also want to unify the titles.

Haye doesn’t see himself as having destroyed his chances at fighting the Klitschko brothers in the future, and dismisses what Bernd Boente, the manager of the Klitschko brothers, said about Haye having “almost zero chance” of fighting the Klitschko brothers in the future. Haye said that he previously told the Klitschko team not to announce the fight with him and Vitali as having been completed until it was finished.

However, the Klitschko team did it anyway, a move which Haye felt was used to put additional pressure on him to sign the contract for the fight. Haye, however, wasn’t pleased with the contract that Vitali and his management team presented to him, not liking the rematch clause which would have made it necessary for Haye to fight two more fights against Vitali or his brother if Haye had beaten Vitali in the proposed September 12th fight. Haye said that trying to negotiate the contract with Klitschko was very difficult, and that he felt he wasn’t treated with respect.

By going around Klitschko to take the fight with Valuev, Haye pulled off a move that was like a game of chess. Whereas Vitali and his team thought they had the power in their court due to him having the WBC title in his possession, Haye has now put Vitali in the position where he’ll have to potentially negotiate with Haye on even terms if Haye can defeat Valuev on November 7th.

That has to hurt klitschko and his team. And it may be a lesson to them about dealing with future challengers. It might be better to give in a little if the opponent is popular like Haye, because they might have other options available to them, at least until when and if the Klitschko brothers have all four heavyweight titles in their possession.

As for the fight still not being sanctioned by the WBA, something that heavyweight contender John Ruiz said recently in a press release, Haye said that the fight has been ratified always by the WBA, which would seem to have taken some of the air out of Ruiz’s argument that the fight between Haye and Valuev shouldn’t go forward.

Whether you like Haye or not, he’s clearly good for the heavyweight division for as long as he can keep winning. He’s right when he says that the Klitschko brothers won’t hold a grudge against him, because they obviously want to get the most money they can and if Haye is the best option available to them to make that happen, obviously they’ll go after him immediately.

The Klitschko brothers badly want to unify the heavyweight titles which is another reason why they won’t be holding any grudges against Haye. They may not like having to accept a 50-50 revenue split with him if he beats Valuev, but that’s the way things go in boxing.