By Sean McDaniel: With the May 17th deadline passed that the IBF set for IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko and WBA heavyweight champion David Haye to agree to a fight it’s now looking like there won’t be a fight between them. Haye, 29, has reportedly said for Wladimir to go ahead and fight his mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin rather than to try and put together a fight with him. My thoughts about this is whether Haye was ever serious about wanting to fight Wladimir in the first place or was he merely namedropping to get attention in the media.

If that’s the case, then it worked perfectly for Haye because he’s been namedropping with both of the Klitschko brothers for the past two years and yet he’s gotten nowhere near the ring to fight either of them. Recently, it looked like Haye was finally serious about wanting to fight Wladimir Klitschko until he put out a video calling Haye out for a fight.

After that, Haye disappeared completely and hasn’t said a word. It makes me wonder whether Wladimir made a mistake in showing interest in a fight. Maybe Wladimir would have been better off had he played it cool and let Haye do all the work. As it is, there doesn’t seem to be a fight on the horizon between these two champions. It’s hard to imagine that Haye will back out yet again. He had a chance to fight both Klitschko brothers last year but failed to take them up on the offer after coming close with Wladimir and walking away completely with Vitali.

There are some people who think that Haye, after getting a good payday for his easy mandatory defense against 38-year-old John Ruiz, has decided to try and milk his WBA title for as long as he can against the mostly mediocre opposition that is currently ranked in the top 15 by the WBA. From that point of view, you can’t blame Haye if he did want to milk his title, because he stands little chance of beating either of the Klitschko brothers. He would get one big payday against one of them in losing by a probable knockout.

But instead of facing them and losing, if he holds onto his title and beats the opposition that the WBA has ranked, he could make seriously good money every time out. Theoretically, Haye could hold onto his title until he’s 31 and make a huge bundle before he hands up his gloves. Look at his next title defense, for instance. Ruslan Chagaev will be facing Kali Meehan in a title elimination bout this Saturday. Haye has to defend his title against the winner of that fight. That’s easy money for Haye. Why take on one of the Klitschko brothers and lose when he has guys like this that he would have a seriously good chance of destroying. On top of that, Haye still has to give a rematch to 7-foot Russian Nikolay Valuev in the near future.

That’s another nice safe fight where Haye would have a good chance of winning in an ugly fashion. That pretty much takes care of 2010 and starts with 2011. Beyond that, the WBA has Denis Boytsov ranked #4 and Alexander Ustinov at number #6. Those are winnable fights for Haye as well. Anything can happen, don’t get me wrong, but Haye should be able to win this fights unless he gets tapped on his brittle chin.

As much as I’d like to see Haye fight the Klitschko brothers, I think Haye has decided to milk his title rather than face the Klitschko brothers and lose. I imagine Haye will continue to namedrop every now and then so that he can get the media attention that it gives him but I don’t see him getting anywhere near the ring with either of the Klitschko brothers.