Haye vs. Ruiz: Does The Quiet Man have to Knock Haye out to win?
February 11th, 2010
By Scott Gilfoid: In looking at the upcoming title fight between World Boxing Association heavyweight champion David Haye (23-1, 21 KO’s) and challenger two-time heavyweight champion John Ruiz (44-8-1, 30 KO’s), I think Ruiz may have to knock Haye out if he has any hopes of winning. Frankly, I don’t give Ruiz a chance in a million to win a decision in England. I just don’t see that happening. With all those screaming fans shouting their lungs out for every missed punch that Haye throws, the judges are probably going to fall in lockstep behind all the lovesick Haye fans and end up giving the decision to the 29-year-old Haye.
Haye defeated Valuev by a 12 round majority decision in November 2009, in what was one of the most boring fights I’ve ever seen in my life. I had never, until that fight, seen a fighter average only 10 punches thrown per round. This is pretty much the extent of Haye’s offensive output in that fight. Many of Haye’s fans have fell over backwards making excuses for his poor offensive performance, blaming it on a hurt hand, the size of Valuev and just basic strategy.
I wish I could buy all those excuses but I just don’t believe it. To me, Haye looked terrified against Valuev and ran around the ring trying to keep from getting clobbered by the weak-punching Russian. It worked. I got to give Haye credit for that, but he really stank out the joint with his performance. Haye was supposed to be the new breed of heavyweight, someone who was going to save the heavyweight division from the dull Klitschko brothers.
Instead, we got an even worse performance than Klitschko or Valuev fight that I’ve ever seen. And I have a feeling that in defeating Valuev and capturing his title, we have traded one boring fighter for another. I hope I’m wrong about this.
Haye needs to beat Ruiz if he wants to get a big paying unification bout against the Klitschko brothers. If Haye loses to Ruiz, his dreams of fighting the Klitschko brothers will be pretty much finished. Haye is young enough to talk his way into another title match, but if he can’t beat a fighter like Ruiz, who isn’t as young or as powerful as some of the top contenders, then I doubt Haye would have much chance against another top fighter in the division.
This is why I think it’s very important that Haye beat Ruiz, so he can avoid having to find himself talking his way back into another title shot. Haye has a gift gab, and reminds me of a young Muhammad Ali with his ability talk. He doesn’t remind me of Ali with his fighting, unfortunately. I see Haye fighting more like 41-year-old Roy Jones Jr. than Ali. The same pot shot style and same chin problem.
Tags: 22 Responses to “Haye vs. Ruiz: Does The Quiet Man have to Knock Haye out to win?”
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anybody who cant beat ruiz shouldnt be ranked in the top 5o..this fight is another don king farce…next… haye is in talks with benard hopkins and then valuev again (from golden boy)…meanwhile another 2 years will pass during which he will rant, taunt, duck, and his fans will claim is is getting ready to clean up boxing..quoting ring…haye will continue to fight safe opponants while convincing his fans everyone is ducking him….as lewis has said of haye in an earlier ring magazine, getting in the ring with either k bro would be a disaster for him
Haye will open up against the slower and less powerful Ruiz. Apart from being younger Haye has explosive power that Ruiz will not be able to handle. If you look at these two Haye is an athlete, Ruiz looks more like a bar room brawler . I think Ruiz will spoil, hold and fustrate Haye for 4 to 5 rounds then game over. I have nothing against Ruiz I just think Haye is faster, more powerful and a far superior fighter to Ruiz who has been a bit of a journey man. Out with the old in with the new !
scott, dont give up your day job, the fight scene is not just in wankie land , your judges are more bent then ever and more drug cheats inall your silly sports and you lot all justifiy them, give haye so credit at least he is a champ instead of a chump
Ruiz is not a steeping stone he is a FLOOR MAT and Haye will wipe his feet on him
Boring hugfest, that only the ardent follwers will watch.
I dont like Haye either,he’s too smug and loud but i wont let personal feelings cloud my judgement.Haye to ko Ruiz within 4 rounds.
I can’t see Ruiz winning this fight! Haye to win by late TKO or majority decision!
A sparkling KO by Ruiz would be more than prized by dedicated fans throughout boxing if only to help reinforce the belief of justice in this oft times unjust old world. The purge of the repellent David Haye is what many boxing fans are interested in viewing come fight night in April.
Nevertheless, the chance for a victory on the part of Ruiz in point of fact coming about are wretchedly slim, although not unfeasible. Haye is going in to this fight deeming the bout somewhat of a cake walk, this is Ruiz`s opening. Ruiz has the ring savvy to pull out an upset but that is what a Ruiz win would be, an upset.
So lets have three cheers for the coming upset shall we …
Easy decision / late KO for Haye.
Ruiz is terrible these days, yes he might have a solid chin, but thats about it, and even the mightiest walls crack after being hit with a hammer enough times.
i agree with scot, i hope haye gets smashed and shuts the f up!
No Ruiz doesn’t need to KO Haye to win. He just has to turn up to lose. The Quiet man will become quieter.
I agree with most of the guys here on ‘the pot calling the kettle black’ issue. The home of the free…interpretation of judging! Of course there are dodgy decisions in the UK, but not as much as Germany, Italy and certainly not as much as the US.
but what I don’t agree is that it would never go to the judges in this case. David is no Tua! A KO isn’t certain by a long shot in this case. Because he’s fighting the master hugger, spoiler (even Dirrell and Johnson can learn a lot from this guy) and survival artist. But when it goes to the judges, I doubt they have to rob Ruiz from the decision… because he probably won’t land anything clean anyway!
this bloke is a w$%^er dose he not watch boxing at all. Did he npot see the val, haye fight, haye tko easy and scott i would like to get u into the ring and show you what boxing is all about chump stop writing sh%t about good britsh boxers e bring excitment to the ring what dose anyone else bring nothink. Come on haye.
scotty thats rich coming from a country that spews out dodgy referees and judges…
and this is coming from the person who thinks dirrel was robbed when the judges were not even home grown…
David will knock Ruiz out…ps…you aint a proper journalist…these are just sour faced blogs…if you read a magazine you see they give an ‘arguement’ not an opinion… loser
No way will this fight go 12 rounds… not in a million years. i predict a very early and very brutal KO – Haye to KO Ruiz inside 6 rounds.
Glad you wrote another article on Haye. Recently read that in training Haye is throwing 150-200 punches in sparring for 12 rounds to prepare. Sure against the beast he only threw an average of 12 per round but the tactics worked. In this fight with Ruiz Haye is 2 inches taller and around the same weight. He will be able to unload and counter at will plus he will be too quick for Ruiz. Ruiz has a great chin and heart but eventually the Hayemakers will tire him out for a stoppage between round 7 – 10. Underestimate Haye at your own peril Scotty. It won’t even go to the scorecards.
the fight will be finished long before scorecards are needed !!!!! 2010 the year of david the hayemaker haye !
Well said Stu, The home of the dodgy decision is The USA. It seems to be the home of the dodgy writer as well. It also seems strange that Ruiz is the mandatory, another dodgy decision.
The Uk has a reputation for great decisions, okay Bradley should have beat Witter unaminous, and Froch should have beaten Dirrell unaminous but plenty of fighters have came over here and took titles, Sugarboy Malinga beat Nigel Benn, Robin Reid and Richie Woodhall both lost also.
it will not go more than 5 rounds ! haye by ko
since when has europe been worse than the us for hometown decisions? lewis/holyfield 1 was one of the worst judged fights of all time. whittaker/chavez is generally considered the biggest robbery ever. if all you’re basing this on is dirrell/froch as far as uk fights go…that was a close fight…whether you think it went one way or another it was a tough fight to score because so few punches landed. but let’s look:
lewis/holyfield was a robbery. us soil. whittaker/chavez was a robbery. us soil. hopkins/taylor robbery both times: us soil. jones/tarver 1. robbery. us soil. whittaker/ramirez. us soil. whittaker/odlh. us soil. odlh/mosley 2. us soil. odlh/trinidad. us soil. hearns/leonard 2. us soil. malignaggi/diaz 1. us soil. mayorga/spinks. us soil. bobby pacquiao/hernandez. us soil. odlh/sturm. us soil. mayweather/castillo 1. us soil. i’ll stop there but the list is freaking endless.
the one country that has had more outrageous decisions in big fights than any other is the good ol’ us of a. how any yank gets off criticising germany…& especially the uk…where the foreign fighters have taken decisions loads of times: (hill/maske? benn/malinga?) as opposed to a country where lennox lewis was losing rounds despite holyfield not throwing a single punch for the entire 3 minutes & being repeatedly warned by the ref that he’ll stop the fight if he doesn’t throw back. i mean, c’mon…lewis couldn’t get a decision despite throwing over 200 more punches than holyfield. the us is the home of the dodgy decision. i bet you’d have trouble naming 5 hometown decisions involving uk judges. rank ignorance.
Ruiz will have to win very convincingly to get a decision in the UK.
Like John or not he has been willing to go where he knows the deck is stacked against him.
I just hope for a good, competitive fight.