By Scott Gilfoid: WBA heavyweight champion David Haye has tipped his hand by saying he wants to fight IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko rather than his brother WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko. Frankly, I smell a rat and I don’t like it.

I think Haye is planning on rushing the sometimes weak-chinned Wladimir and is hoping to knock his block off on the inside while Wladimir is attempting a harmless clinch. Haye seems to like to keep punching fighters when they’re clinching him, and his punches often end up hitting the back of his opponent’s heads.

I saw this in Haye’s heavyweight bouts against Monte Barrett, John Ruiz and Audley Harrison. Haye’s bout against World Boxing Association heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev was the only fight at heavyweight where I didn’t see Haye clobbering his opponents in the back of the head while they were attempting to clinch.

It wasn’t possible for Haye to land his shots in close against Valuev because the big Russian bear didn’t attempt any clinches in the fight. But Wladimir does like to clinch and quite often. He clinches about six to ten times per round. Heck, clinching had become part of Wladimir’s game to the point where I don’t think he can stop himself from doing it even if he’s made to realize that it might be a dangerous thing in a fight against someone like Haye.

Since I can’t see any real change being made in Wladimir’s game in such a short period of time, I say Wladimir and Vitali give Haye no other choice but to fight Vitali or nobody. It’s not that Wladimir wouldn’t wipe the deck with Haye all night long in a normal boxing match, it’s that the guy seems to specialize in taking apart his opponents when they attempt to clinch.

Wladimir can’t fight back in that kind of bout. He has no chance. Vitali needs to take this fight for a couple of reasons: 1. He doesn’t clinch and 2. Vitali’s chin is much better than Wladimir, so even if Haye does go rabbit punch crazy in the fight, it won’t have the same effect on Vitali as it would Wladimir.

The Klitschkos need to tip off the referee to be ready to penalize and disqualify Haye if and when he starts going rabbit hunting. The referee needs to nip that behavior in the bud immediately by taking of points immediately before someone gets seriously hurt.