By William Mackay: Former heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis thinks that the Klitschko brothers need to be more sensible in negotiating with WBA heavyweight champion David Haye (25-1, 23 KO’s) fora fight in early 2011. Lewis, who might be a little favorable to Haye’s position in negotiating because he’s also a Brit like Haye, says in an article at thesun.co.uk, “They [Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko] should eat a bit of humble pie and come to the negotiating table and be sensible about their cut. People are tired of those two hand picking old-time, overweight boxers who do not even deserve to share the same ring as them.”

Lewis might want to redirect those comments at none other David Haye, because last time I checked, Haye has fought the following heavyweights since moving up to the division two years ago: Monte Barrett, 38, Nikolay Valuev, 36, John Ruiz, 38, and Audley Harrison, 39. I think those guys would fit into Lewis’ description of being “Old time”, don’t you think? Wladimir has recently fought Eddie Chambers, Samuel Peter, Ruslan Chagaev, Hasim Rahman, and Tony Thompson. While I would put Rahman in the category as an over-matched opponent, Peter, Chambers and Thompson are all top contenders and actually look good compared to the heavyweights that Haye has been facing.

Perhaps Lewis isn’t aware of who Haye has been fighting recently and is seeing more into him than what’s actually there in terms of his opponents. But I think Haye has been taking it awfully easy since moving up to the heavyweight division, and it’s not like he didn’t have a chance at fighting both of the Klitschko brothers.

It’s hard to see Haye getting an even 50-50 deal with the Klitschkos based on the mediocre opponents that Haye has fought while in the heavyweight division. He simply hasn’t faced anyone worthy of him getting an even 50-50 deal with the Klitschkos and you can’t reward Haye, a newcomer at heavyweight with two title defenses of his paper WBA title, with parity with the Klitschkos after a handful of fights at heavyweight against soft opposition. And when Haye was fighting at cruiserweight, the best opposition he faced was Jean Marc Mormeck and Enzo Maccarinelli. Those are the only two recognizable opponents on his resume, and that’s just not good enough because both of those fighters are nowhere right now and not mentioned with the top fighters in boxing. Lewis needs to face it, Haye is totally unproven as a fighter and lacking in real time experience. You can’t give a guy that an even deal based on wins over the fighters I’ve mentioned. The Klitschkos have been the best in the heavyweight division for seven long years. Haye does nothing similar in comparison.

Lewis continues “Right now, you have to say the Klitschkos are the best heavyweights in the world, but only until David gets to them. David can whoop them both, they have both been beaten before, they both have chinks in their armor and it only takes one shot. Haye has that big Hayemaker right hand punch of his to do it. Haye definitely shouldn’t accept less money to fight the Klitschkos either. He should stand his ground. He should get half the money like he wants. I believe the Klitschkos will eventually come to the table and will humble themselves.”

I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for that to happen if I were Lewis. I don’t think the Klitschkos will humble themselves to give Haye even more of an advantage than what was already offered to him. And I don’t think Haye can beat either of them. I don’t even think Haye can beat the out of shape Lewis. I think Lewis is going to be disappointed if Haye does eventually fight one of the Klitschkos because Haye is going to get badly exposed and knocked out. He stands no chance against either of them. Also, Haye was beaten as well and by a 40-year-old Carl Thompson. The age of Thompson fits in with the age level of the fighters that Haye has been matched against since moving up to the heavyweight division.