By Sean McDaniel: Newly crowned World Boxing Association heavyweight champion David Haye has no idea what everyone has been talking about as far as him being in preliminary talks with WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko. Haye says that he hasn’t spoken to the 38-year-old Klitschko since before Haye’s November 7th bout against previous WBA heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev. In an article with Sky Sports, Haye says “Anyone who has a title, I’m coming after them, plain and simple, The dream is still on. I have achieved my goal of becoming a world champion. Now it’s about cementing my legacy by unifying the titles and dominating the division like the greats Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis, and Mike Tyson and defending my belts as many times as possible.”

This should quiet some of Haye’s critics who see him avoiding the Klitschko brothers and trying to get as many title defenses possible against the mostly mediocre opposition in the heavyweight division. Haye, 29, has a mandatory defense of his WBA title coming up in early 2010 against former heavyweight champion John Ruiz. Once that fight is out of the way, Haye will be ready to go after the Klitschko brothers, just as long as he wins the fight against Ruiz.

Vitali Klitschko appears to be the one that has the most interest in fighting Haye in the near future. Wladimir has been mostly quiet about fighting Haye since David injured his back before their scheduled June 20th bout. However, if Haye keeps on winning, and beats Wladimir’s brother Vitali in the future, there’s a good chance that Wladimir will have a change of mind about wanting to fight Haye. There’s nothing like the desire for revenge.

Haye has a lot of work cut out for him if he wants to build a legacy anywhere near that of Lewis, Holyfield and Tyson. Those fighters had a huge advantage of fighting as a heavyweight from the start of their careers and didn’t move up to the heavyweight division at 28, like Haye. If Haye is still planning on retiring by 30, like he’s said in the past, it won’t be possibly for him to establish much of any legacy. Haye has to stick around, beat both of the Klitschko brothers and four or five more good heavyweights in the division before he can start talking about establishing a legacy that will have a lasting effect.

Haye looked good in beating Valuev in November, beating him with one hand after injuring his right early in the fight. In the 12th, Haye staggered Valuev with a hard shot but was unable to finish him off.