David Haye vs John Ruiz Preview

Dave Oakes previews Saturday's heavyweight clash between David Haye and John Ruiz.

David Haye makes the first defence of his WBA heavyweight title this Saturday night when he takes on the much maligned John Ruiz at the M.E.N Arena, Manchester, England. It will be the first heavyweight title fight to take place in Britain since Lennox Lewis’ two round slaughter of Francois Botha nearly ten years ago.

Haye returns to the ring five months after defeating the Ukrainian giant Nikolay Valuev in Nuremberg. Haye showed he could box and move in that fight but Ruiz will provide a very different challenge to the Brit. The lumbering Valuev struggled to land a punch of note and wasn’t able to cope with Haye’s speed. Ruiz, whilst not being a particularly skilful boxer, will get close enough to Haye to make him work.

It’s fair to say Ruiz likes to grind his opponents down, whether it is by legal means or otherwise, he walks forward and tries to smother his opponents work, if he succeeds in doing that then he sometimes lets his hands go. It has been fairly effective for him thus far in his career, though his style’s not pleasant on the eye and is the basis of most fans criticism of him.

Ruiz, 44-8-1-1NC (30KO’s), is a former champion and brings a wealth of experience into the ring with him. He’s only been stopped once in his career - a brutal first round defeat against the big punching Kiwi David Tua. People shouldn’t read too much into that knockout, he was caught cold against a destructive puncher. It also happened early in his career and he’s learnt a lot since.

Ruiz first won the world title when he defeated Evander Holyfield in their second bout, Holyfield having won the first. He retained the title after the rubber match between them ended in a draw. It was the trilogy of fights with Holyfield that made Ruiz known in world boxing, he was already known by the hardcore fans on both sides of the pond but was relatively unknown to the casual fan.

The reason Ruiz was known on these shores was due to him having a handful of fights over here in the mid nineties, the highlight being a fourth round stoppage of future British and Commonwealth champion Julius Francis. Therefore, I doubt he’ll be worried about this visit to Britain and being the away fighter.

A successful defence against Kirk Johnson was followed by a wide points defeat at the hands of Roy Jones Jnr, who hit and moved his way into the record books without ever being troubled by the much bigger Ruiz. The defeat didn’t discourage Ruiz, as he overcame adversity yet again by winning the interim title in his next fight, a scrappy affair with Hasim Rahman. It’s noticeable that every time Ruiz has had difficulties in his career, he always seems to be able to dig deep and find the willpower to carry on and try to right the wrongs. He deserves a lot of praise for achieving what he has.

He successfully defended his title three times (one being a no contest against James Toney, a result that was changed from a Toney victory due to Toney failing a drug test) before losing to Nikolay Valuev via a debatable majority decision. He had to wait the best part of three years to get a rematch, a fight in which he was disappointingly flat and lost more clearly than in their first fight.

His last fight came on the undercard to Haye v Valuev; he looked very impressive in stopping Adnan Serin in the seventh round. He boxed well at times and wasn’t clinching or mauling his opponent like he usually does. He put the better performance down to his new trainer, Miguel Diaz, who has promised that Ruiz will be even better against Haye.

The big pressure will be on Haye to prove that his victory over Valuev wasn’t just a one-off; no champion wants to lose their title in their first defence, especially in front of 20,000 fans. Haye showed great patience in defeating Valuev, he’s been accused of being gung-ho in the past but the Valuev fight showed he can box as well as bang.

Haye, 23-1 (21 KO’s), will have the edge in skill, speed, movement and punch power, however, he is vulnerable around the chin, and despite Ruiz not being a big puncher, you can’t dismiss the chance a knockout in his favour. Haye has been down a handful of times in his career, the most noticeable being when he beat Jean Marc Mormeck to win the WBC and WBA cruiserweight titles, he was dropped and badly shaken in the fourth round before he came firing back to stop the Frenchman in the seventh.

He successfully defended his titles against Enzo Maccarinelli, adding the Welshman’s WBO belt in the process. Maccarinelli is a big puncher and Haye showed intelligence in not getting involved in a brawl with him, he waited for his opportunity to land a big shot of his own and took it when opportunity arose, blasting Maccarinelli out in the second round.

Haye has been enjoying his new found fame recently and has appeared on pretty much every show on British television. He’s a good looking bloke who’s approachable, funny and comes up with plenty of quotable quips for the press to latch onto. He seems to enjoy the limelight but he has to be careful that it doesn’t become a distraction and have a detrimental effect on his boxing.

There are bigger fights out there than the one against Ruiz but Haye can’t afford to take his eye of the ball on Saturday night. Ruiz looks in terrific shape and is confident of an upset; he’s a tough customer and will give everything he’s got. I have my doubts over his supposed new style, I’ve got a feeling he’ll revert back to his hump and thump tactics of old as soon as he gets caught by Haye.

Haye could make things easier for himself by boxing in a cautious manner, but after his controlled performance against Valuev, I feel he might want to put a show on for his fans. His ego will be telling him to go for the early knockout but he may come a cropper if he does so. I’d like to see him taking his time and picking Ruiz off with the jab before stepping in with his ‘hayemaker’ straight right.

I’ve heard that Haye will weigh in at a career high (around 225-230lbs), it will be interesting to see how he carries the extra weight, especially how it might affect his stamina if the fight goes into the later rounds. He won’t want a repeat of the Carl Thompson fight, which is the only defeat on his record.

The outcome of the fight will come down to how Haye approaches the fight, if he takes his time and boxes sensibly, I’d pick him to either stop Ruiz around the eighth or win via a wide points decision. If he comes out all guns blazing then anything could happen. If you want an indication on Haye’s game-plan, look out for what colour his trainer, Adam Booth, is wearing on fight night. He usually wears a blue t-shirt if he wants Haye to be calm and a red t-shirt if he wants Haye to go to war. It’s all part of his psychological training methods.

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