By Chris Williams: New World Boxing Association heavyweight champion David Haye could cash in with a big money fight against one of the Klitschko brothers in late 2010 as long as Haye can get by his mandatory challenger John Ruiz in early 2010. Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer sees a huge money making potential for the 29-year-old Haye when he steps in the ring for a unification bout against one of the Klitschko brothers. Schaefer sees Haye as having Muhammad Ali-like charisma, if not his talent.

Schaefer feels that American boxing fans would be greatly interested in seeing Haye fight one of the Klitschko brothers. It’s unclear if that’s the case, since Haye hasn’t had too much visibility in the U.S. aside from his fights against Monte Barrett and WBA heavyweight champion Valuev, but neither of the fights were seen by a whole lot of people.

Haye has potential to be a big star, but it’s doubtful that Haye will be popular enough to create a huge surge of interest in a fight with either Klitschko brother. It may be that Schaefer has a case of wishful thinking right now. Vitali Klitschko fought Chris Arreola recently and it didn’t attract a lot of attention in the U.S., and Arreola is far better known than Haye is. Although Haye has great promotional skills, even that will likely not budge American fans into purchasing a Pay-per-view fight between him and a Klitschko brother if the casual fan doesn’t have a clue who Haye is.

For them to learn about him, Haye needs to fight a number of times on HBO against good fighters. John Ruiz, his next opponent, won’t likely be enough to get Haye’s name out there because Ruiz is up there in age at 37, and was never very popular to begin with. If Haye were to fight and beat heavyweights like David Tua, Kevin Johnson, Alexander Povetkin, James Toney and Odlanier Solis, I could see a Klitschko-Haye bout being huge. However, it won’t be at then end of the 2010, because you can’t market a fighter on the quick by having him beat Barrett, 38, Valuev, 36, and a 37-year-old Ruiz.

That’s not impressive. Haye didn’t exactly sparkle against Valuev either. Say what you want about Haye’s hand injury, the end result was a dull fight that was about as interesting to watch as paint drying. There was nothing exciting about the fight, and for fans to say that it was exciting, that seems a little disingenuous on their part. Haye was dull, and fought a safety first fight. He talked a lot before the fight and made it seem as if he was going to knock Valuev into the stratosphere.

However, instead what we saw was Haye fighting a tentative fight that was hard to watch. Mike Tyson, Haye was not. I have no doubts that a fight between Haye and one of the Klitschko brothers might make a lot of money overseas, but it won’t be a huge fight like Miguel Cotto vs. Manny Pacquiao or Ricky Hatton vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr.

It won’t be close to that level. It could be, but it would take a little more time for Haye to build up his name in the U.S. Haye can’t do that by fighting opponents in their late 30s like Barrett, Valuev and Ruiz. All three are near 40, and Haye didn’t look good against Barrett or Valuev. Ruiz will likely be another fight in which Haye will struggle. Haye will talk as if he’s going to knock Ruiz out, but I don’t see it happening.

This is going to be a tough fight for Haye and if he does win it, he’ll win it by a narrow 12 round decision. Ruiz is on the level of Valuev in terms of talent and we saw Haye just barely scrape by the slow moving Valuev and get a win. Ruiz will make Haye work hard, will hit him many more times than Valuev did and test his fragile chin with uppercuts and hooks.

Haye hasn’t shown that he has the ability in the heavyweight division to be a big talent. He may sell himself better than other heavyweights, but as of yet, he hasn’t shown the talent to breeze through good fighters like the Klitschko brothers. If Haye wants to get a huge money fight against one of the Klitschko brothers, he’s going to have to go for broke against Ruiz and try to take him out as early as possible.