By Chris Williams: It looks as if the loud talking British cruiserweight turned heavyweight David Haye (22-1, 21 KO’s) has dodged a bullet after two time World Boxing Association heavyweight champion John Ruiz has reportedly agreed to step aside and let Haye go ahead and fight WBA heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev (50-1, 34 KO’s) on November 7th, in Germany.
Ruiz, the mandatory challenger for the WBA, wasn’t particularly happy that he had been skipped over by Valuev recently. However, now Ruiz will let the fight go ahead and take place and will be in position to fight the winner of the bout. This is good news for Haye and Valuev boxing fans.
It’s also a win-win situation for Ruiz, because there’s a good chance that he’ll be fighting Haye next rather than the huge 7-foot 324 pound Valuev, who Ruiz has already twice lost to in the past. A fight against Haye will likely mean a bigger payday for the 37-year-old Ruiz.
It’s unknown what was given to Ruiz to get him to step aside for the Haye-Valuev bout, but you can imagine it must have been a nice chunk of money for Ruiz to want to bypass a title fight with Valuev. Although Ruiz has lost twice to Valuev in the past, the big Russian Valuev appears to have lost some of his physical tools in the past year due to the effects of aging.
Ruiz, on the other hand, still looks as good as ever and would have a good chance of beating Valuev on a third attempt. For Haye, this is the best news he could have, because if he were to have lost the chance at fighting for the title against Valuev, it would have likely put Haye in the position where he would have had to stay active by fighting a top 15 heavyweight.
Given that Haye has already fought a soft touch in 38-year-old Monte Barrett in his last fight in November 2008, Haye would have been skewered by the boxing press if he chose another journeyman type opponent to fight instead of a top level opponent.
The reason for this is because of the bragging that Haye has made about himself, saying that he is the new breed of heavyweight one that only takes on top fighters. Thus far, Haye hasn’t exactly practiced what he preaches, because in the two fights that Haye has fought at heavyweight he’s been in with Tomasz Bonin and Barrett. The choice of opponents seem to speak for themselves.
I kind of indicates that Haye isn’t the what he says is and is more or less doing what the standard heavyweight does. In other words, padding his record with soft touches. Haye hasn’t seen action since November 2008, and it will have been a year out of boxing by the time that Haye fights Valuev.
Hopefully, Haye doesn’t make a practice of this because he supposedly wants to be out of boxing by the time he’s 30. At this rate, he’ll have two more fights and will be finished. Even if Haye does beat Valuev, the opportunities for Haye appear to be limited. Haye has to fight Ruiz next, which will be far from a huge mega fight that Haye is hoping to get as a heavyweight champion. It’s unknown whether Haye can get one of the Klitschko brothers to fight him at this point because Haye backed out on fights with both brothers.
It’s going to take a lot of convincing by Haye to get a fight with either of the Klitschko brothers, and its’ doubtful that Haye’s trash talking with lure either brother into fighting him this time. Haye might want to use a different approach next time if he wants to fight the Klitschko brothers by kissing their backsides over and over again. That would be a good start for Haye.
Haye can then throw in some apologies and he might get the fight he’s looking for. First off, Haye is going to have to find a way to solve the huge height, weight and reach of the seven foot Valuev. It won’t be easy for Haye.
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