Haye Butchers Brave Ruiz

Dave Oakes recaps this past Saturday's Sky Box Office main-event between David Haye and John Ruiz.

Undercard Recap: Groves & Olusegan Win, Moore Stopped by Khomitski

David Haye hammered his way to a multiple knockdown ninth round stoppage of John Ruiz in an entertaining heavyweight clash at the M.E.N on Saturday night.

Haye had won the title by pot-shotting and outmanoeuvring Nikolai Valuev, here he showed his destructive punching and an aggressive mentality that will send a message to the Klitschko’s.

Ruiz, despite his reputation as a spoiler, came forward and looked to punch rather than maul; he deserves a lot of credit for doing so, especially after tasting Haye’s power in the first minute of the fight. Ruiz was slowly stalking the champion from the opening bell but was caught with a quick fire left-right combination that sent him crashing heavily to the canvas. An unsteady Ruiz was up at the count of eight but had the look of a man who’d just realised the momentous task ahead of him.

With the end looking imminent Haye chased Ruiz across the ring before landing a hefty right hand that had the American stumbling towards the ropes, Haye showed a brutal thirst for victory and clobbered Ruiz with two rights to the back of his head that sent him to his knees. The referee gave a count but deducted a point from Haye as soon as Ruiz got to his feet.

The decision to score the knockdown and then deduct a point was a strange one, surely if the punches were illegal, which they were, then the ref shouldn’t have counted the knockdown. The only thing I can think of is that the ref thought the ropes had kept Ruiz up after the first punch and the illegal shots came after that.

Thankfully Ruiz has a fighters heart and didn’t make too much of the rabbit punches. Haye’s lucky he wasn’t fighting someone like Bernard Hopkins, who would surely still be rolling around and crying for a disqualification now.

Ruiz made it through the remainder of the round and produced a good response in the second and third rounds. Whilst he wasn’t landing that much cleanly, Ruiz was still coming forward and was putting Haye under pressure. Haye was boxing well of the back foot - jabbing, moving and occasionally landing a big right hand.

The fourth round was Ruiz’s best of the fight, he caught Haye with a few jabs and went close with hooks and straight rights, Haye doing well to turn his head away or partially block them as they were about to land.

Normal service was resumed in the fifth round, Haye was still taking his time and picking Ruiz off with the jab but he was stepping in with the heavy shots more and more and it was beginning to take its toll on the remarkably tough Ruiz. A clubbing right had Ruiz down again, and despite him beating the count easily, you sensed that it was only going to be a matter of time before he was down again.

Haye continued teeing off on the now bleeding Ruiz, his already mangled nose having been flattened even more by Haye’s bombs. It was another clubbing right in the sixth that had Ruiz down for the fourth time, he complained of another rabbit punch but he was clutching at straws at this point and the referee issued a count.

The seventh round saw Haye coast for the most part, he seemed happy to reserve his energy for the later rounds - a sensible move against such a durable opponent, and a lesson learnt from the only defeat of his career, when he punched himself out against Carl Thompson. He closed the round with some heavy shots just to catch the judges eyes.

I can’t think of a boxer that has been ridiculed as much as John Ruiz has over the past ten or so years. He’s been criticised, rightly so at times, about his negative style and his messy clutch first, punch second tactics. However, he should be applauded for the way he performed here, he could’ve looked for the easy way out when he got dropped but he kept getting to his feet and marching forward valiantly.

After another quiet round in the eighth, Haye stepped up the pace again in the ninth. He was rocking Ruiz’s head back with more heavy-handed blows and the referee was starting to take a closer look at him. The referee’s intervention wasn’t needed though, Ruiz’s trainer, Miguel Diaz, waved the towel in and prevented Ruiz from taking further punishment. It was a sensible decision as Ruiz, as brave as he was, was getting a shellacking and was never going to produce an upset.

Haye received a tremendous reception from the 20,000 fans in attendance and I hope it’s the start of something big in Britain. We’re in need of another fighter who can sell out massive venues now that Calzaghe, Hatton and Khan have either retired, going to retire or have absconded to America.

Haye wasn’t that impressed with his performance but it was one of the most entertaining heavyweight fights of recent times and hopefully the presence of a fit, ambitious and athletic champion can reignite a division that’s been in the doldrums for far too long

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