Haye confirms Klitschko fight

David Haye has confirmed he will fight Wladimir Klitschko later this summer for the WBA, IBF and WBO world heavyweight championships.

Both men have been calling on each other to make the fight happen for some months, and Kiltschko's withdrawal from a scheduled April 30 defence against Dereck Chisora appeared to bring an agreement a step closer.

The fight is expected to take place on June 25 or July 2. Haye told the BBC that the fight was secured late on Saturday night, confirming: "I finally had that contract in front of me and I couldn't wait to put pen to paper."

Haye continued: "It'll be either June 25 or July 2, either date is fine by me.

"It's the fight every boxing fan has to see, and every sports fan.

"He is ranked by many as the best heavyweight in the world - in front of myself, even though I'm the WBA champion."

The fight looks set to take place in Germany, where Ukrainian Klitschko has a huge following.

On the negotiation process, Haye said: "He wanted all these little things - he's a bit precious, is Wladimir, so I gave him all these little things to make him feel like he'd got a mental edge.

"The terms were right, it's a fair deal - it's a 50-50 split, that's what they wanted and that's what I wanted.

"I'll just make sure the referee can count to 10, then I'm the new unified heavyweight champion of the world. Here it is - end of June, beginning of July - let's get ready to rumble."