David Haye does not know what his future holds after insisting he "put heavyweight boxing back on the map" despite losing to Wladimir Klitschko in Hamburg.

In what Klitschko claimed was ‘‘a victory for boxing'' after some of Haye's pre-fight talk, the Ukrainian enjoyed a resounding points victory at the Imtech Arena to add Haye's WBA title to his own IBF and WBO belts.

Haye immediately cited a broken toe for his uninspiring performance - showing the swollen digit to Klitschko and media in the post-fight press conference - but admits even taking that into account it is difficult to see where he goes now. The Londoner had planned to retire in October after one more fight. Klitschko is not keen on a rematch and Haye hardly demanded one.

‘‘Listen, will he want to give me a rematch when I'm 100 per cent fit? I don't know,'' Haye said. ‘‘If not, then I don't know. I really don't know. I'd love him to give me a rematch.

‘‘He said he can knock me out and I'd love him to give it a go. If he couldn't knock me out on one leg, pretty much, then how about when I'm fit?

‘‘I think it would be interesting. I think I hurt him more than he hurt me but that's boxing. I'd love to knock him out but it wasn't happening in there for me, unfortunately.''

As for his deadline of hanging up the gloves on October 13 - his 31st birthday - Haye hinted he could fight on.

He said: ‘‘I'm not making any decisions yet on retirement," before adding: ‘‘I'm gutted I wasn't able to do what I needed to do out there. I feel we've put heavyweight boxing back on the map because this fight got so many people excited.

‘‘Wladimir's had more than 50 fights and this is the first one to have reached out to everybody and I think I played my part in that. Postponing was not an option. I pulled out of a fight with Wladimir two years ago and doing it again was not an option. No matter what happened in training I couldn't pull out. I genuinely believed I could win the fight.''

Haye had the opportunity to establish a legacy in the heavyweight division as the man to end Klitschko's dominance. But after talking the talk he failed to walk the walk.

Instead he boxed on the backfoot, using his advantage in speed and reflexes to avoid most of Klitschko's one-dimensional shots.

In return he landed occasional winging right hands over the top and, after answering some questions about his own chin, he asked some of his own with an excellent 12th-round assault.

But his overall performance was sub-standard as he lost a wide decision with scores of 117-109, 118-108 and 116-110.