BoxRec

David Haye now wants to fight WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko after injury forced him out of a clash with his younger brother Wladimir.

Haye was schedule to meet Wladimir Klitschko on June 20 in Gelsenkirchen, but a back injury made that date impossible to make.

The brash-talking Londoner had hoped to postpone the meeting with the IBF and WBO heavyweight champ until July, but Klitschko has opted to take on Ruslan Chagaev instead.

Klitschko will honour his June 20 date in Germany and take on the world number three-ranked fighter and joint WBA title holder.

A three-belt world title fight with Klitschko now seems a long shot for Haye, with the champion scheduled to take on IBF mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin in September and then Alexander Dimitrenko in the New Year.

'The Haymaker' (sic) would not want to wait until Easter next year for a title fight, and has now turned his attentions to the older Klitschko brother Vitali.

Haye's manage Adam Booth says that one of the plans now being discussed is a fight with Vitali Klitschko sometime in September.

"We've spoken about Vitali in September," said Booth. "Fighting Vitali is just something that was thrown up with a few other things, but we've not directly talked to them about it.

"We were only asking for a three-week delay and Wladimir is either impatient or it's an indication of his desire about really wanting to fight David."

The senior Klitschko brother currently holds the WBC heavyweight crown and has won twice since coming out of injury-forced retirement - the latest success coming over Juan Carlos Gomez in March.

Former cruiserweight king Haye has already spkoen of his desire to fight both Klitschko brothers, and he will be going all-out to lure Vitali into the ring.