By Sean McDaniel: WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (42-2, 39 KO’s) is probably in a good mood today knowing that he’s got a big fight against former WBA heavyweight champion David Haye (25-2, 23 KO’s) awaiting him after Vitali takes care of former light heavyweight and crusierweight champion Tomasz Adamek (44-1, 28 KO’s) tonight in Wroclaw, Poland.

Haye was interviewed by the German News site Bild today, and he said this about a fight with Vitali: “There is no opponent better than me. And I would send him into retirement but without his belt.”

It’s pretty clever of Haye to wait until the night of Vitali’s important fight with Adamek to finally speak about his plans for the future. Haye had been planning on retiring in October on his 31st birthday. However, Haye is now putting off retirement plans to fight Vitali or his brother IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko.

The chances of a Wladimir-Haye rematch are quite low right now, as Wladimir has said that he’ll let Vitali fight Haye next. But there’s always a chance that we could see Wladimir face Haye again depending on what transpires with Vitali-Haye. To be sure, Haye is a lot faster than Vitali and this is more of a Nikolay Valuev vs. Haye type of fight.

Vitali lacks the athletic ability that Wladimir has going for him, as he can’t move around the ring nearly as well, and doesn’t have the jab or the hand speed that Wladimir possesses. You need speed and movement to beat a fighter like Haye. As such, we could see a Haye victory over Vitali and then the need for Wladimir to come in and clean up for Vitali. This happened in the past when the faster Chris Byrd wore Vitali down with speed and movement, stopping him in the 9th round in 2000. Haye is a lot faster and a much better mover than Byrd, so it’s a real possibility that Haye can win this fight.

For Vitali, this gives him a reason to continue fighting after he takes care of Adamek tonight. Without Haye, there was a lot less opportunities for Vitali in terms of big fights.