WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko has announced he will defend his title against Albert Sosnowski, the London-based Pole, in his next fight on May 29, according to Telegraph.co.uk.

WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko has announced he will defend his title against Albert Sosnowski, the London-based Pole, in his next fight on May 29. The venue will be Gelsenkirchen in Germany.

Sosnowski had been expected to meet Audley Harrison for the European belt in London next month, but has now abandoned that plan in favour of a much grander payday.

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"He is not famous like Ali or Lewis," said Klitschko of his 31-year-old opponent, "but he`s part of the new generation that are coming up. I do not want to underestimate him. It is 50-50."

Klitschko has reverted to his back-up plan after a failed attempt to schedule a fight against the former WBA champion Nikolai Valuev.

"Valuev is chicken," Klitschko said. "We gave him the biggest financial proposal of his career – $2.5 million – and he says `no`. He understands that if he loses this fight, that`s it for a long time in his career. Because it`s the money for his pension – that`s why he wanted $4 million. He`s not a big champion."

The knock-on effect of all this manoeuvring is that David Haye, who beat Valuev for the WBA crown in November, is likely to have to fight the Russian again to satisfy the re-match clause in their contract.

That will probably come in September, assuming that Haye wins his first defence against America`s John Ruiz on April 3.

By Simon Briggs, Telegraph.co.uk