By William Mackay: Instead of sticking around to see whether he can become a great one someday, 30-year-old WBA heavyweight champion David Haye (25-1, 23 KO’s) says that he still plans on retiring at the end of the year.

Haye’s fight against IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (55-3, 49 KO’s) could be the last of Haye’s career even if he wins the fight. It would depend on whether WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko would be willing to face Haye before his 31st birthday, which is an impossibility given that Haye turns 31 in October and Vitali has a September fight against Tomasz Adamek.

Speaking with the BBC, Haye said this about his upcoming July 2nd fight against Wladimir: “It could be my last fight. I’ve always said that I am going to retire when I’m 30. If there’s another fight that can happen quickly then let’s get it on. Otherwise, once I’ve unified the titles, there’s nowhere else to go – I’ve always anticipated retiring and have adjusted my life according to that.”

The odds of Haye beating Wladimir aren’t very good. Haye will have to likely retire in defeat with a knockout loss being the last fight of his career. Whether Haye, with his big ego, can accept retiring under those kinds of conditions is unclear.

It’s not the best way for a fighter to end his career and we may see Haye sticking around long enough to try and end his career on a positive note.

The problem is that Haye will have to pick a contender out from the bunch to try and end his career with a win, because any chance of a fight against Vitali will be completely lost after Haye is beaten by Wladimir on July 2nd. That will greatly limit who Haye can fight. He won’t be able to fight Adamek or Vitali in 2011. This means that Haye would have to postpone his retirement for a while and try to talk Vitali into fighting him anyway regardless of Haye having lost to Wladimir.