By Scott Gilfoid: I think World Boxing Association heavyweight champion David Haye is making a big mistake if he moves ahead and defends his title against his mandatory challenger John Ruiz in 2010. If Haye had the talent and size of one of the Klitschko brothers, I’d recommend for him to go ahead and fight Ruiz. However, Haye isn’t a big heavyweight, has a weak chin, poor stamina and a equally poor work rate.
In a fight against Ruiz, it’s basically a pick em’ fight. It could go either way. If Haye isn’t able to land one of his big pot shot bombs and take Ruiz out, then I can see Haye losing the fight by either knockout himself when he runs out of gas or by decision.
With the big money that’s on the line for a mega fight with either of the Klitschko brothers, Haye needs to pay Ruiz a step aside fee and go ahead and fight one of the Klitschko brothers. It would be much more worth it to pay off Ruiz and take the fight with the Klitschko brothers than to risk fighting Ruiz and possibly screwing up the whole deal by losing. Haye didn’t look great against Nikolay Valuev last weekend, and didn’t show that he can dominate.
Haye barely won the fight and didn’t look as good as Ruiz did in his two fights with Valuev. Unlike Haye, Ruiz took the fight to Valuev and landed cleanly all night long, throwing many more punches than Haye did. It’s possible that if Haye fought Ruiz that he could maybe get lucky and knock him out.
I doubt it though. Ruiz hasn’t been stopped in many years and only then to a powerful David Tua. Haye isn’t a natural heavyweight. He may have moved in weight, but he still doesn’t punch hard enough with every shot for him to be the type of heavyweight to get Ruiz out of there. It takes more consistent power than what Haye has for him to stop Ruiz.
Tua was just way too strong for Ruiz and was able to walk through him in the 1st round. Haye wouldn’t be able to do that and could find himself in a situation where unless he was able to land enough punches in every round, he’d end up getting outworked. I don’t see Haye out-landing Ruiz in this fight. Haye isn’t a busy fighter and is way too cautious about getting hit.
Haye may talk a lot before a fight with Ruiz and say this and that about knocking Ruiz out. But when the time comes for the bout to take place, you’ll see Haye fighting the same cautious safety first bout as he did against Valuev, especially once Ruiz lands a couple of hard punches to his chin. And with Ruiz’s sneaky power, he could very well pull off a big upset which would completely ruin Haye’s chances of ever getting a huge mega payday against one of the Klitschko brothers.
Haye can’t afford to lose to Ruiz, and that’s why he should pay him off a sizable sum so that he steps aside and lets Haye fight the Klitschko brothers. It would actually work perfect. Vitali Klitschko has a bout in December against Kevin Johnson. After that, Vitali has an opening on his schedule for early 2010. Haye could then fight him at the start of the year and take immediate advantage of his fame from the Valuev fight. Even if Haye beats Ruiz, it won’t catch the attention of boxing fans like Haye’s fight against 7-foot Valuev.
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