? Klitschko will fight Dereck Chisora not Haye
? 'He is scared of getting knocked out,' says Haye
David Haye believes Wladimir Klitschko is running scared and has called his heavyweight rival "a coward" but hopes the pair might still set up a fight this summer.
Haye, the WBA champion, has been engaged in protracted negotiations with Klitschko, who holds the IBF and WBO titles and is regarded as the world's best heavyweight as holder of the respected 'Ring' belt, to get a showdown set for this summer.
However, it was announced yesterday that Klitschko will honour his agreement to fight Haye's fellow Londoner Dereck Chisora on 30 April after a stomach injury forced the champion to pull out of their proposed clash last month, which in turns means Haye will instead take on the mandatory challenger Ruslan Chagaev of Uzbekistan.
Haye was left less than impressed by the whole situation, not pulling any punches in his rhetoric. However, the British heavyweight, who maintains he will stick to his pledge to retire when he turns 31 in October, insists even now he would be open to a unification bout.
"Fight fans just want to see the best against the best ? if only it was that simple," Haye said. "For this fight, I thought we had gotten over all of the obstacles. I even renegotiated my own current promoters' contract to allow the Klitschkos to get what they wanted out of the fight.
"They wanted to fight in Germany, I said 'OK'. We made sure our mandatory challenger could be put on the backburner, had agreements from all the TV networks. Very rarely in boxing do you get a situation where you have all the pieces of the puzzle, all the politics have been smoothed over.
"He wanted to come in second, to have his name first on the promotion posters ? we said 'OK, let's just make this super-fight happen which everyone wants to see'.
"Then all of sudden he announces he is fighting [Chisora], knowing I have to then fight Chagaev. To then fight me after is impossible ? it is a shame he has now shown his true colours."
Haye added: "He is scared of getting knocked out and does not want to lose, fighting people on a good run. What is wrong with now? Nothing. It does not make sense, especially after all the public campaign to get me in the ring.
"This would be a once in a lifetime fight. Once I retire, people will always ask him 'why did you not fight David Haye?' and he will have to live with that.
"If it does not happen now, it never will. Hopefully he is getting some serious stick, will read what the world is saying about him and think 'OK, maybe I will just cancel this fight and do the fight everyone wants to see'.
"Nobody will hold it against him if he cancels the fight with Dereck Chisora ? the public aren't interested in that fight, nobody knows who he is.
"It is pretty sad but shows the mindset of Wladimir Klitschko and why he will go down in history as a heavyweight who just fought the worst possible people out there."
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