David Haye’s life just got very busy. The new WBA heavyweight champion has not had much sleep since his big win in Germany on Saturday. It seems everyone wants a piece of the new champion.

Life changed the moment on Sunday evening that he stepped off his budget airline flight back from Nuremberg, having defeated Nikolay Valuev. Ground crew and baggage staff at Stansted Airport queued up to cheer the 29-year-old before he collected his bags; a crowd of admirers, photographers and camera crews greeted him as he made his way into the terminal.

And it continued yesterday as he was shuttled around London between interviews and a press conference, where he took up his place on a throne. Having begun the day on the GMTV sofa, he ended it with a seat at his beloved Millwall FC where he added lustre to their their 4-1 FA Cup success over AFC Wimbledon with a half-time appearance on the pitch.

“He’s probably had only two hours sleep in two nights,” Adam Booth, his manager and trainer, said.

Haye has been boxing for nearly 20 years, but he has just made the move into the superstar bracket.

His arrival home had been Haye’s first chance of a party, having not touched a drop of alcohol in celebration on Saturday, but he is not the party animal he is sometimes portrayed as. Haye says that his life is rather dull and that he likes it like that.

When he first turned professional, though, Haye certainly knew the inside of a nightclub. He even boxed once at the Playboy Mansion in Beverly Hills.

“Fighting in the Playboy Mansion and being pictured with Hugh Hefner does tend to stick with you when you’re out and about,” Haye said. “As time goes on and you fight better fighters, you have got to have earlier nights and start thinking about what’s important. For me that was being No 1 in the world and going out clubbing doesn’t help that.”

Late nights are incompatible with any boxer’s lifestyle and he paid for it when he faced Carl Thompson in 2004 at Wembley Arena and was stopped after punching himself out inside five rounds. “He doesn’t just want to be known as a pretty boy,” Booth said after that loss. It was a night that changed Haye’s career.

When he was in a training camp in London for his bout with Valuev, he communicated with his wife, Natasha, only by phone. “You’ve got to lose all the luxuries, food, sex, everything,” he said. “It is hard not seeing the family, but you have to look at the big picture. It’s only a couple of months and in the big scheme of things, I’ve won the heavyweight world championship.

“I’m sure the family understand. Would they rather be with me and me lose? You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. Going out to the theatre, eating rich food isn’t going to make me a better boxer.

“I’ve been training from a young age and I’d be down the gym while my mates would be out having a laugh, shagging or whatever, but those are the sacrifices you have to make. I suppose it was a boring life, but when I’m not training, I do let loose a bit.”

Letting loose could now become more difficult. The win over the 7ft giant Russian on a majority decision has catapulted Haye into the public consciousness and will make him a multimillionaire.

“Before I could walk down from Oxford Street to Piccadilly and maybe about 15 people would shake my hand, but that’s it and it’s nice,” Haye said. “I go about my business with no stress or drama, hopefully it doesn’t get too bad.

“There’s nothing really that I want that I’ve haven’t already got. There’s nothing that I need. The title was what I wanted and that’s what I got. A flashy car isn’t going to make me a better boxer. As champion I’m still going to keep that same discipline.”

Haye got his love of boxing from his father, Deron, and when he was small he watched the bouts of Larry Holmes, Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier on video.

“I’ve got a very strong family unit, everyone believed in me,” Haye said. “I would say ‘I’m going to be heavyweight champion of the world’ and they would say ‘yes you are, that’s what you are going to do’.” Neither Deron, nor Haye’s mother, Jane, were present in Nuremberg, but he phoned them from the dressing room after the bout.

“I spoke to my mum first, she was going crazy, she knows how important it is to me,” he said. “The whole family was crowded into one room all screaming and shouting.”

Haye’s post-bout workload shows no sign of relenting. He is scheduled to fly to Las Vegas on Friday to be paraded in front of the American media and to watch the Manny Pacquiao-Miguel Cotto bout.

Topping a bill in Vegas certainly appeals to Haye, but his first defence is likely to be in London against John Ruiz, the former champion and the mandatory contender. Haye’s broken hand, suffered in the second round of his victory, is likely to push that back to March or April.

Beyond that, though, he has unsettled business with the Klitschko brothers, Vitali and Wladimir, who hold the WBC, WBO, IBF and IBO titles between them.

But as a double world champion, and with his eyes on retiring at 31, Haye believes that he will have to go some to overtake the achievements of the previous British world heavyweight champion, Lennox Lewis.

“For me to surpass what Lennox Lewis has done will take a lot more than two years,” Haye said. “Even if I knock out Vitali and Wladimir, I’m not sure I will come close.”

•The call centre at Sky Sports was inundated with viewers trying to sign on to the pay-per-view screening of David Haye’s bout against Nikolay Valuev on Saturday, but Britain’s new heavyweight champion is not thought to have set a box-office record (Kevin Eason writes). Figures are still to come in but subscriptions for the contest are expected to come in at fewer than a million, although many fans watched in pubs because the bout was screened from 10pm. The record for a pay-per-view audience on Sky is 1.2 million for Ricky Hatton versus Floyd Mayweather Jr on December 8, 2007.David Haye’s life just got very busy. The new WBA heavyweight champion has not had much sleep since his big win in Germany on Saturday. It seems everyone wants a piece of the new champion.