By William Mackay: WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko believes former WBA heavyweight champion David Haye can become a world champion again in the future by facing him and beating him. But Vitali doesn’t understand why Haye is so concerned with just money. The British heavyweight is asking for too much money when he no longer has much to offer.

Vitali said to the dailymail.co.uk “David Haye can be strong again. He can be the world champion again. He can fight me, the oldest and the weakest of the Klitschko brothers. Haye has a chance to get back into the game. I don’t understand why money is the only motivator.”

Vitali has a point. Haye is 31, and should be able to work his way back to a title even if he gets smashed by Vitali. But right now, Haye doesn’t have a title and isn’t respected enough to bring huge money to a Haye-Vitali fight like he did with his bout against Wladimir Klitschko last year in July. Haye needs to lower his asking price for a Vitali bout for that fight to happen. Short of that, Haye will haven to look elsewhere for a payday.

If Haye fights WBA champion Alexander Povetkin, the money won’t be nearly as good as for a Vitali bout. He can get a 50-50 purse split for a fight against Povetkin and still end up making less money than he’d get with a 70-30 purse split with Vitali. What Haye needs to do is listen to former world heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis’ advice for him to fight a couple of tune-ups and then look to make a fight against Vitali, but thus far Haye has been resistant to that idea. He just wants the Vitali fight without working for it, and that kind of gives the boxing public the impression that Haye is only out looking for one last payday before disappearing into retirement. Given that Haye’s fans already feel ripped off for his fights against Audley Harrison and Wladimir, they’re not excited about seeing Haye fight Vitali straightaway.