David Haye To Defend WBA Heavyweight Title Against Audley Harrison In UK

WBA heavyweight champion David Haye (24-1, 22 KOs) is scheduled to defend his title for the second time against Audley Harrison on November 13, the same date Manny Pacquiao collides with Antonio Margarito in Arlington, Texas.

The heavyweight fight will be held at the MEN Arena in Manchester, United Kingdom.

Haye is fresh from his recent victory against American heavyweight John Ruiz. The British boxer retained his WBA title via a TKO in Ninth Round last April 3

Prior to his victory over John Ruiz, Haye snatched his WBA title from Nicholas Valuev in November 2009 via majority decision at Nuremberg Arena in Germany.

Haye, who used to dominate the cruiserweight division, was scheduled to face Wladimir Klitschko on June 20, 2009. However three weeks before the scheduled fight, Haye pulled out from the fight citing back injury which the Klitschko camp doubted as the real reason for Haye's backing out of the agreed fight.

In September 2009, Wladimir's brother, Vitali agreed to fight Haye in Germany however for the second time, Haye opted out from the scheduled fight citing contract issues.

The Klitschko brothers have been chasing Haye since he got his WBA crown from Valuev.

After pummeling John Ruiz to submission, David Haye immediately called on the Klitschko brothers for what could have been this year's major heavyweight fight.

On April 12, Wladimir Klitschko published on his Facebook page a video of him challenging David Haye for the WBA title. In the video Klitschko says "On behalf of the boxing fans around the world, I'm officially calling you out to fight me. David, you can't run away from me forever, and you need to follow through with this fight to get respect. I'm ready, what are you waiting for?

It seems though that Haye, like Floyd Mayweather, Jr. ducking Manny Pacquiao, appears to have also ducked the Klitschko brothers and finally damped them in favor of Harrison.

Harrison (27-4, 20 KOs) won super heavyweight gold at the Sydney Olympics and was tipped to become a world champion in the professional ranks.

But his career failed to take off in any meaningful way and looked to be over when he suffered a shocking points loss to Belfast taxi driver Martin Rogan in December 2008.

Harrison is fresh from his victory over Michael Sprott for the vacant EBU belt via KO in the final round. His victory over Spott was his fourth straight win since his loss to Rogan in 2008.

A contest between Haye and fellow Londoner Harrison, who were once close friends before a public war of words last year, will have box-office appeal in Britain, with the MEN Arena virtually guaranteed to sell out.