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Harrison blasts Haye's reputation in the US

Audley Harrison won Prizefighter III to revive his career © Getty Images

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Audley Harrison has no interest in fighting David Haye because he claims no one in America is talking about the WBA heavyweight champion.

The 2000 Olympic gold medallist Harrison takes on Albert Sosnowski on April 9 in London for the European heavyweight belt. If he is successful, he will turn his attentions to a world title fight against Vitali or Wladimir Klitschko, who between them hold all but one of the heavyweight championships.

"The heavyweight division is desperately looking for marquee names and, no disrespect to David Haye, but no one in the US is talking about Haye," Harrison said.

"They're all talking about the Klitschkos and no one is giving Haye any play as a world champion so the guys I want to fight are the Klitschkos. If you get a chance against Haye then people will say that you must then beat the Klitschkos so, if I beat Albert, I want the Klitschkos."

The 38-year-old, explaining his disappointing in-ring performances prior to his career-reviving victory at Prizefighter III in October 2009, cited the BBC's decision in 2005 to remove boxing from their schedules as the day things unravelled. The corporation had a deal to televise each of Harrison's first ten professional fights, and he found their failure to renew that contract demoralising.

"When my contract with the BBC ended I lost my feel for boxing and the passion for boxing died. I left England and almost didn't want to box as I was that disheartened - you saw that in my performances. I was a shell and I had no desire. I was a totally broken man and it took a long time to recover from that."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.