By William Mackay: World Boxing Association (WBA) heavyweight David Haye (24-1, 22 KO’s) missed a perfect opportunity to try and pick off one of the Klitschko brothers for his next fight, and make good the promise of beating both the Klitschkos and unifying the heavyweight titles before he retires at age 31 next year. Haye, 29, will now have to find another opponent for his next fight by the end of the year, and it’s not likely that Haye will be able to find anyone nearly as interesting as one of the Klitschko brothers.

IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko will be fighting a rematch against former WBC heavyweight champion Samuel Peter on September 11th in Frankfurt, Germany, and Wladimir’s brothers, WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko, will likely be fighting former WBO heavyweight champion Shannon Briggs in October. In the meantime, Haye is going to have to decide whether he wants to fight former 2000 Olympic Gold Medalist Audley Harrison for a fight that would be big in Britain or whether he wants to fight someone ranked in the top 15 by the WBA.

There are a lot of dangerous opponents out there that could possibly upset Haye and ruin his chances at getting a big money unification bout with one of the Klitschko brothers. Currently, Haye has the following fighters to pick from in the top 15 for the WBA rankings: Ruslan Chagaev, Kali Meehan, Nikolay Valuev, Dennis Boytsov, Alexander Ustinov, Odlanier Solis, Alexander Dimitrenko, Jean Marc Mormeck, Manuel Charr, Roberto Helenius, Juan Carlos Gomez, and Alexander Ustinov.

Out of that bunch, there are some fighters that Haye could clearly beat without too much trouble, but he will take a lot of criticism if he fights them. However, it’s hard to see Haye taking a risky contender like Solis, Adamek, Helenius, Boytsov or Dimitrenko next. Those fighters are all beatable, but they’re good enough to cause Haye big problems if they can take him deep into the fight and land something on his questionable chin. Haye defeated 38-year-old John Ruiz in his last fight in April.

That was Haye’s first title defense, and while he looked good for the most part, he was getting hit by Ruiz in the fight. Ruiz isn’t a big puncher, and yet he was still able to mark up Haye’s face and land some nice shots. If Haye lets someone like Solis, Adamek, Boytsov and Helenius land the same kind of shots that Ruiz was landing, Haye may not be a champion long enough to take on one of the Klitschko brothers.

With the risk involved with maneuvering around the minefield of top contenders in the heavyweight division, it’s very likely that Haye will either opt to take on the 38-year-old Harrison next or chose to give a rematch to the 36-year-old Valuev. The Russian Valuev isn’t a big puncher and Haye could probably beat him again by running around the ring all night long, landing pot shots and throwing in the low numbers.