As I recently reported, negotiations for Wladimir Klitschko's defense of the WBO/IBF heavyweight titles against David Haye were once again falling apart. Speculation began to build over the weekend that Klitschko's camp had initiated talks to secure unbeaten Chris Arreola as Haye's replacement. The speculation exploded on Monday when a Tuesday media event to officially announce Arreola's April 11 bout with Jameel McCline was unexpectedly "postponed until further notice" by Goossen-Tutor [Arreola's promoters].

Well, if Haye is indeed out of the picture for good, Arreola will not be the fighter to take his place. Promoter Dan Goossen would tell Michael Rosenthal of the The Ring Online that Arreola was not going to fight Klitschko, and plans to move forward with the scheduled bout with McCline. Goossen will reschedule the Arreola-McCline press conference to next week.

That leaves Klitschko in hole a for a credible opponent, or with his back against the wall to make a deal with Haye. Talks to make a fight with Haye have been a disaster since the start. Once they solve one problem, another three come up. Haye's manager Adam Booth backed off and allowed Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer to handle the negotiations. Schaefer was able to close a lot of the pre-existing issues but there were other that continued to linger and prevented the parties from closing the deal.

The only options that immedtiatly come to mind are Alexander Povetkin and Alexander Dimitrenko. There could be an issue with landing Povetkin, who is scheduled to fight Jason Estrada on April 4 in Düsseldorf, Germany. Klitschko had wanted to fight a lot earlier than the agreed upon date of June 20 [for the Haye fight]. If Povetkin walks away with a win in April, and no injuries, a date of June 20 should not be an issue to fight Wladimir.

Dimitrenko's schedule appears to be clear but he is totally unknown to the American public. Povetkin has at least had exposure on HBO, but the network might not be as eager to spend big money on Klitschko-Dimitrenko, which is a good fight, but one that many American fans will probably not watch due to Dimitrenko's lack of exposure on American television.

Klitschko's reputation can't afford another opponent like Tony Thompson, Hasim Rahman or a Chris Byrd. The fans want to see him tested.