Maccarinelli says he would have loved to have fought Haye

Each camp has blamed the other for the failure of a planned 7 April fight in Cardiff, Maccarinelli saying that he understands money was the problem.

"We are about to announce one of two world-class men to challenge for my title on 7 April," said Maccarinelli.

"I signed to fight Haye last week but he didn't want to sign his contract."

Team Haye says it wanted the bout to take place as part of a one-fight deal, which it claims Maccarinelli's promoter Frank Warren agreed to.

But Team Haye claims ITV, which televises Warren-promoted fights, then informed them it was not willing to do a one-fight deal and wanted "various options" on Haye.

European champion Haye normally fights on rival channel Sky TV, but had been given special dispensation to meet Maccarinelli on ITV.

I see Swansea's Liberty Stadium as just the right place to stage a July fight with O'Neil Bell Enzo Maccarinelli

Warren wanted the much-anticipated meeting to go ahead on the undercard of Joe Calzaghe's WBO super middleweight title defence against Peter Manfredo in the Millennium Stadium.

"Frank offered me two easy options or the Haye fight, and I immediately jumped at the latter option," Maccarinelli told BBC Radio Wales' Sportstime show.

"But now we've moved on and are looking at two highly regarded names. One has accepted, and it's a matter of agreeing the cash.

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"I start training in earnest on Monday - and then it's 12 weeks of pure hell!"

Bonymaen-man Maccarinelli, 26, hopes to go on this summer to meet the winner of a proposed March fight between WBA & WBC title-holder O'Neil Bell and Jean-Marc Mormeck.

"By the end of 2007 I want to be recognised as the leading cruiserweight in the world," said the Welshman.

"To do that, I have to beat the likes of Bell and the other title holders.

"There's a lot of politics involved, but if all goes well we could be looking at Bell in July.