David Haye is being lined up for a mega-fight at Wembley Stadium against one of boxing's feared Klitschko brothers. Adam Booth, Haye's trainer who masterminded Saturday's stunning victory over giant Russian Nikolai Valuev, revealed at a press conference today that the contest could take place next summer.

“Wembley have been on to me,” said Booth. “Haye against a Klitschko, Wladimir or Vitali, would be one of the biggest fights in heavyweight history.”
Gate receipts from a sell-out crowd of 100,000, combined with his cut from pay-per-view television subscriptions, would see Haye come away from a showdown with one of the Ukrainian brothers with around £20million.

But first, the 29-year-old from Bermondsey has promised a knockout return to London for the first defence of his new title, with the O2 Arena set to be a 20,000 sell-out for a fight with mandatory challenger John Ruiz.

Haye was punch-perfect on the way to scoring a majority points victory over the lumbering 7ft 2ins Valuev in Germany. Now he wants to take his growing legions of supporters on a lucrative ride that would culminate with him unifying the heavyweight division against the Klitschkos.

Haye said he wants to “clean up the division” but he knows he must first beat 37-year-old Ruiz, the so-called Quiet man' born in the United States but of Puerto Rican descent.

Ruiz was paid to step aside and let Haye have the chance of taking the World Boxing Association's belt from Valuev. Now Haye must go in against Ruiz before taking on the Klitschkos.

That contest must wait until April or May because Haye sustained a suspected broken hand against Valuev, while on the undercard at the Nuremberg Arena, Ruiz suffered a bad cut on the way to stopping Adrian Serin in the seventh round of a non-title bout.

Should he get Ruiz out of the way, Haye will then seek to unify the heavyweight belts with Wladimir holding the IBF and WBO titles while Vitali is the WBC champion. Haye said: “I said I want to be unified champion and the Klitschkos are definitely in my sights.”

Haye deserved the many plaudits he received in the wake of becoming Britain's first world heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis in 2003. However, the most outlandish tribute — which came from Richard Shaefer, chief executive of Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions — compared Haye to the legendary Muhammad Ali.

The Londoner laughed off those claims and said: “I felt a bit uncomfortable seeing those reports putting me up there with Ali. Muhammad Ali is the greatest, and I've had one heavyweight title win. I can't come even close to being mentioned in the same breath as Ali. I've got a long, long, long way to go. Even if I knocked out both the Klitschko brothers on the same night along with the rest of the heavyweight division, you still couldn't even come close to comparing me to Ali. I'd have done my job becoming a great heavyweight if I'm talked about in the same breath as Ali — in 50 years.”

Haye was speaking at a London hotel where he grimaced every time well-wishers went to shake him by his damaged right hand.

He said: “It is pretty bad. It was the same as what happened when I fought Giacobbe Fragomeni in 2006. I broke my hand on the top of Fragomeni's head. This time I hit Valuev on the chin, and it had the same effect. When I hit him with that shot I then realised this guy's for real — he just licked his lips!

“After that I had to be very sparing with my right hand. But the tactics we had worked out in the gym proved sound. Every shot I threw was landing or coming close to landing. I was stunning him with very clean, crisp punches.”

His best shot wobbled Valuev in the 12th and final round, nearly sending him crashing to the canvas for the first time in his professional career.

Haye recalled: “He's never had his legs go to jelly before. I think I hit him with a shot harder than he's ever been hit before. I wanted him to leave the ring knowing that he had come second best.”