By John F. McKenna (McJack): Within hours of numerous articles appearing in the boxing world that former World Boxing Association (WBA) heavyweight champion David Haye (25-2, 23 KO’s) was going to follow through with his threat to retire on October 13 contradictory articles started to appear.

Haye has been saying for the last couple of years that he planned to retire on his 31st birthday, which happens to be this Thursday, October 13.

When the “Hayemaker” originally cited his 31st birthday as his retirement date, it was predicated on his winning the championship belts held by heavyweight champion Vladimir Klitschko. At least that is what everyone had been led to believe. When Haye suffered his humiliating defeat to “Dr. Steelhammer” on July 2 however things began to change. Shortly after losing by a lopsided unanimous decision to Vladimir, Haye stated that he wanted a rematch and that if Vladimir was agreeable to that he would postpone his retirement date by six months. Realizing that there was no market for a rematch with Haye, the Klitschko camp declined.

Vitali at the time stated that while he was happy Vladimir had won in convincing fashion he wanted the opportunity to “Send Haye to the floor!” “Dr. Ironfist” repeated his desire to knock Haye out after his TKO win over Tomas Adamek on September 10.

After a recent vacation in the Caribbean with his family Haye began to sort things out and ponder what he wanted to do next. He also discussed his future with former heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis. It is rumored that Lennox gave David encouragement and offered him tips on how to beat Vitali. At that point Haye said that he would delay his retirement by six months to take on the elder Klitschko.

With both Klitschko and Haye expressing the desire to fight each other it seemed probable that such a fight would take place. But a couple of weeks went by with no further word from Vitali. Exasperated at not hearing anything back from the Klitschko camp Haye appeared to be unraveling. A couple of days ago Haye went public and said that if he did not hear anything from Vitali by October 13 he would retire.

But let’s be real. The “Hayemaker” has no other option than Klitschko. A fight with Vitali would bring in another hefty payday for David. He cannot risk losing to a Tomasz Adamek or Chris Areola and lose the opportunity to land a big money fight. Vitali Kltischk is only too well aware of the predicament Haye is in.

The question now being asked is whether the Haye retirement rumors were just a ploy to motivate Vitali into moving ahead with a Klitschko – Haye fight?