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Haye still expects to end career against Vitali

David Haye has not turned his back on a fight with Vitali Klitschko just yet © Getty Images

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David Haye is confident a fight with Vitali Klitschko will still be possible before he retires in October, as he believes the older brother will be desperate to gain revenge after Wladimir is knocked out by the Brit this weekend.

Haye has always maintained that he will retire on his 31st birthday on October 13, regardless of the fight opportunities still available to him at the time.

With Vitali set to face Tomasz Adamek in September both fighters had previously seemed to acknowledge that a second Haye-Klitschko bout is unlikely, but the Brit is now more bullish about the chances of agreeing a meeting.

After all, injury enabled Wladimir to opt out of a pre-arranged fight with Dereck Chisora at the end of April, paving the way for him to fight Haye in Hamburg on Saturday - proving a lot can change in a matter of months.

But Haye knows he has to beat the 35-year-old first, before he can move on to the older brother.

"I'll start thinking about Vitali after the referee has counted to 10 on Saturday and I'm the new unified champ," Haye said. "We'll see. I think after the fight things will change pretty quickly, I'm positive about that.

"There's nobody else I want to fight. Without a doubt I'm confident I'll fight Vitali in September or October.

"Once I've smashed Wladimir I'm pretty sure his big brother is going to try to step up to the plate to take revenge."

Haye is confident of his chances at the Imtech Arena, warning his opponent that he will fight in a very different style to that he employed in some of his previous bouts.

"If he's watched my last fights and is judging me on those then he is underestimating me, without a doubt," he said. "For example during my whole campaign at cruiserweight everyone said 'if you get David past four or five rounds he runs out of steam'.

"Well, that only happened to me once, when I lost to Carl Thompson (in 2004). Everyone else tried that and failed. Every time they got me into the later stages they got knocked out, because I learned from the Thompson fight."

Wladimir has been accused of possessing a weak chin, but Haye is not so sure. He is expecting his opponent to come out with intent from the first bell on Saturday.

"I don't believe he's chinny," he said. "He wouldn't have had the success he has had over so many years if he was chinny because he has been hit by big shots.

"How he reacts to them is different to me - does he stand and hold his ground and fight? Not that often. But for some reason I saw in his eyes he looked like he is going to come and do something different this time round and if he does, that's fine by me."

Meanwhile, Wladimir's trainer Emanuel Steward has admitted the Ukrainian has been flustered by Haye's pre-fight antics.

"This is the only fight I've known Wladimir be emotionally charged up for since the rematch with Chris Byrd, and that was because Byrd's family said a lot of things," Steward noted. "For this fight he is very charged up but still he's been very cool."

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