By Jim Dower: WBA heavyweight champion David Haye (24-1, 22 KO’s) with a few wins over a handful of less than impressive opponents finds himself seemingly with the entire heavyweight division at his feet, vying for his attention. And to think all it took for the 29-year-old Haye to get to where he is today was to do a lot of trash talking, beat 38-year-old Monte Barrett, 36-year-old Nikolay Valuev and 38-year-old John Ruiz.

The heavyweight division sure has slipped badly in quality in recent years. Haye set a goal to win one of the heavyweight titles after moving up in weight from the cruiserweight division, where Haye held the WBA/WBO/WBO titles at the time he left the division.

Haye has now accomplished his goal of winning the heavyweight title but now he wants to unify all the titles. That may be easier said than done, because not only has Haye limited his time to accomplish that to two years, after saying he plans on retiring at 31, but he also isn’t making things easier for himself by stalling at getting in the ring with the other heavyweight champions – Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko.

Before he captured the WBA heavyweight title, Haye couldn’t wait to get his hands on Wladimir and Vitali. But now that he has the title, suddenly Haye seems to be distracted from trying to accomplish that goal by the other heavyweights in the division that are much less of a threat but who would guarantee Haye a huge payday without all the risk involved in fighting the Klitschko brothers.

According to the Southwarknews.org, Haye is considering whether to fight heavyweight contender Tomasz Adamek, European Boxing Union heavyweight champion Audley Harrison, fight a rematch with Nikolay Valuev, fight his mandatory challenger Ruslan Chagaev or take on the Klitschko brothers. The fights against Adamek, Chagaev, Harrison and Valuev are all very winnable fights for Haye and would get him another easy payday before he faces the difficult, some would say impossible, task of trying to beat both of the Klitschko brothers.

A fight between Haye and Harrison would be big in the UK only, as Harrison is mostly known there and doesn’t have a fan base to speak of in the United States. It would be a fight that would serve the purpose of giving Haye some attention with his British fans, because he would be taking on the 2000 Olympic Gold medalist Harrison.

Haye didn’t win any gold medals and never fought in the Olympics while fighting as an amateur. It would be an appealing fight because Haye would be forced to prove that he can fight a tall fighter with power. Harrison can pop a little with his left hand and if he can land one of his hard shots on Haye’s chin, he could be heavyweight champion in an instant. Adamek would be a little tougher for Haye, but also a good payday without as much risk.

Adamek moves a lot, punches well in combination and would make it hard for Haye. Adamek isn’t as hard a puncher as Harrison, but he hits hard enough to take Haye out if he can land enough shots. Haye would probably beat Adamek but the outcome wouldn’t be certain because Haye’s weak chin and poor stamina could hurt him in this fight. Haye is going to have to give Valuev a rematch at some point unless Haye gets beaten by someone first.

Haye might like the idea of fighting the feather-fisted Valuev next, get the big payday that goes along with this fight, and then move on towards his other riskier fights like the Klitschko brothers. Many people figure that Haye will duck the Klitschko brothers until the very end of his career in two years. By then, Vitali will be 40-years-old, maybe too slow to beat Haye, and he could wind up as the first of the brothers that are selected for a fight. If Haye gets by Vitali, then Haye would fight Wladimir Klitschko for the final fight of his career. I doubt Haye would beat either brother, even then. However, if Haye does get by Vitali somehow, I think Wladimir likely knocks Haye out in seven or eight rounds, depending on how long he takes to throw his first power shot.