David Haye is unsure whether he will be able to take the punch of a fully blown heavyweight, although he is looking forward to finding out. The former WBC, WBA and WBO cruiserweight champion kicks off the campaign that could lead to him winning the world heavyweight title when he faces Monte Barrett at the O2 Arena in southeast London on November 15.

“It's a big gamble,” Haye said. “It could go pear-shaped in the first 20 seconds, but I could look like a new Mike Tyson. If I can't take it, I'd rather find out now than drag it out by beating loads of bums and then letting everyone down. If I can't get by Monte Barrett, I'm never going to beat Wladimir Klitschko [the IBF and WBO champion]. If I don't win, I'll probably pack it in. I aspire to the stars. If I stumble at the first block, I'll be a joke.”

Barrett, 37, last boxed in London in 2000 against Klitschko, who knocked him down five times on the way to a seventh-round stoppage. He failed in a bid to win the WBA title against Nikolay Valuev in 2006 but has won his past three bouts inside two rounds, including a one-round knockout of the highly rated Tye Fields. “I'm dangerous, I'm versatile,” the American said. “Once you take the dog off the leash, you know he's going to bite.”

Herbie Hide, 37, the two-times WBO heavyweight champion, will box in Britain for the first time in four-and-a-half years tomorrow when he faces Aleksejs Kosobokovs, of Latvia, in a cruiserweight bout on the undercard of Jon Thaxton's European lightweight title contest against Juan Carlos Diaz Melero, of Spain, in Norwich.

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