By William Mackay: WBA heavyweight champion David Haye (25-1, 23 KO’s) came out and said what a lot of his boxing fans have long feared that his July 2nd unification bout against IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (55-3, 49 Ko’s) could be the last fight of his career if Haye loses the fight. Haye plans on retiring in October, but there really wouldn’t be any point in continuing to fight if Wladimir knocks him cold because Haye’s next fight would likely see him take a huge nosedive in earnings and it’s doubtful that Haye will want to experience that.

Haye said this in Tuesday’s press conference with Wladimir in London: “This potentially could be my last fight, so I want to make sure I’m super in my fight. I’m not going to let him jab. He’s too slow.”

Haye wants to beat Wladimir and then take on his older brother WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko and finish his career with that fight, which would be another huge payday for Haye, perhaps even bigger than his fight with Wladimir. However, Haye is the underdog in the Wladimir fight and is going to have to find a way past Wladimir’s telephone pole-like jab to land something big enough to take Wladimir out. Haye’s only chance of beating Wladiimr is to hurt him and knock him out like Corrie Sanders, Lamon Brewster and Ross Puritty did in the past.

However, in those three fights, Wladimir either ran out of gas or underestimated them by fighting too aggressively. Since 2004, Wladimir has become much more careful, using his jab most of the time and keeping his chin tucked and hidden from his opponents. As we saw in the fight recently between Shane Mosley and Manny Pacquiao, when you have a fighter that is intent on fighting defensively and not taking any chances, it’s very hard to knock them out. The difference between Mosley and Wladimir is that Wladimir is a lot taller than Haye and has a much better jab. Mosley didn’t have a good enough jab and enough size to jab Pacquiao all night long the way that Wladimir will be looking to do against Haye.