By Scott Gilfoid: Both Klitschko brothers want to fight World Boxing Association heavyweight champion David Haye (23-1, 21 KO’s). If the 29-year-old Haye has a preference, you can bet it would probably be IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (53-3, 47 KO’s), and the reason is because his chin is the weaker of the two brothers. Vital, now 38, wants to be the one that faces Haye first, saying “For him [Wladimir] it is personal, but for me I want the title. My brother already has two but I have to clear it with him. I really hope he listens to his older brother.” Haye has a fight coming up next month on April 3rd against John Ruiz.

There’s no telling whether Haye will even get through that fight, even though Ruiz is nine years older than Haye at 38. Haye’s chin is weak, his punches a lot slower than they were when he fought at cruiserweight, and he moves like a slow tank around the ring. Haye looks far from unbeatable as a heavyweight, and his competition since moving up to heavyweight has been weak to say the least.

It would be fair to say that Haye has taken the soft path to the top with fights against Tomasz Bonin, Monte Barrett and Nikolay Valuev. Even in choosing which heavyweight champion to fight for the title, Haye opted for the weakest of the champions, the 36-year-old Valuev, and looked horrible in barely beating Valuev by a narrow 12 round majority decision last November. I actually had Valuev winning the fight by one round because of Haye’s constant running and his anemic punch output.

Vitali says “Haye has the choice, one of the brothers Klitschko. I’ll tell Haye it’s easier to beat me, because I’m older [than brother Wladimir Klitschko] and I don’t have as much energy as my brother. I keep my fingers crossed that he [Haye] beats Ruiz. Not because I like him, but I want his title and to shut his mouth. Maybe we decide by coins who fights him. Let’s hope my brother listens to me. He must always respect old people.”

Vitali would like to be the one to get a shot at Haye first, and he’ll probably get his way unless Wladimir really puts his foot down. If you leave it up to Haye, it’s painfully obvious that Haye will choose Wladimir. Haye stands zero chance of beating Vitali. I mean absolutely zero chance. I guess you could give him a small chance if Vitali was to get injured like he did in his fight with Chris Byrd a decade ago, but that’s the only way Haye beats Vitali. And as for Wladimir, Haye has like a very minuscule chance of beating him as well.

The problem with Haye is he’s too small, and fights like he’s muscle bound. He can’t extend his arms to throw long punches and leaps in too much with wild lunging shots. If he tries that rank amateur stuff with Wladimir, he’s going to get destroyed very quickly. But I have my doubts that Haye’s tender glass-like chin will get him through the Ruiz fight without it being shattered to pieces by one of Ruiz’s uppercuts. Ruiz isn’t a big puncher, but he doesn’t need to be to beat Haye.