Britain’s David Haye has confirmed that he will fight Vladimir Klitschko in the summer for the WBA, IBF and WBO world heavyweight championships.

Both men have been calling for the fight to be finalised for some months, but Klitschko’s withdrawal on Saturday from a scheduled April 30 defence against Dereck Chisora appears to have clinched the deal.

Haye told the BBC that the fight, which is expected to take place on June 25 or July 2, was secured late Saturday.

“I finally had that contract in front of me and I couldn’t wait to put pen to paper,” he told the BBC.

“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 big following.

On the negotiation process, Haye said: “He wanted all these little things – he’s a bit precious, is Vladimir, 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.”

Alvarez champion

Unbeaten Mexican prodigy Saul Alvarez became the youngest world champion in super welterweight history last weekend by defeating Britain’s Matthew Hatton for the vacant World Boxing Council crown.

The 20-year-old freckled redhead, whose nickname “Canelo” is Spanish for cinnamon, improved to 36-0 with one drawn by taking the 154-pound title on a unanimous decision.

All three judges scored the bout 119-108 for Alvarez.

Hatton, the European welterweight champion, fell to 41-5 with two drawn and saw his nine-fight win streak snapped.