By Scott Gilfoid: World Boxing Association heavyweight champion David Haye (23-1, 21 KO’s) will be facing the stiffest test of his career when he faces two-time heavyweight champion John Ruiz (44-8-1, 30 KO’s) on April 3rd at the M.E.N. Arena, Manchester, Lancashire, United Kingdom. Although Haye’s narrow 12 round decision win over WBA heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev was his best fight as a heavyweight to date, Ruiz looks to be a step up from the 36-year-old Valuev in ability.

Valuev may have beaten Ruiz twice by controversial decisions in Germany, but Ruiz appears to be fighting at a higher level than Valuev at this point of the 7-foot Russian’s career. That’s not good news for the 29-year-old Haye, who barely scraped out a decision against Valuev due to his timid, non-offensive performance against the Russian. Haye says he hurt his hand early in the fight, and was focusing on using his boxing skills against Valuev. However, his punch output was even low before the injury occurred. Haye will have to do better if he wants to beat Ruiz on April 3rd.

In an article at Sky Sports News, Haye says “He [Ruiz] comes towards me, he never runs from people. He comes out there and tries to press the action and press the fight and it will give me plenty of openings to counter him.” Maybe, but I doubt it. There wasn’t much countering done by Haye in his last fight against Valuev. In that fight, Valuev constantly pressed forward looking to engage with Haye.

Instead of standing his ground and countering, Haye ran around the ring looking to avoid Valuev. I sure hope that Haye doesn’t do that against Ruiz, because there won’t be much countering done if Haye is moving all the time. And for that matter, there probably won’t be much action if Haye doesn’t stop moving. The good thing is that Haye doesn’t seem to move very well. He looked like he was carrying a 50 pound weight on his back as he continuously circled the ring against Valuev. I felt dizzy just watching all the circling from Haye. It was just awful to watch.

Haye says “I’m going to be dishing him [Ruiz] out Haye all night long. He’s going to be eating it all day.” I bet. Haye was saying similar things before his bout against Valuev, and looked what happened. Haye was like a sprinter in the ring, albeit a slow one. The extra weight that Haye put on to fight Valuev seemed to be a little bit of flab, because he didn’t look as conditioned as he normally does.

Most of Haye’s weight is in his upper body, and his legs have to work hard to carry him around the ring. Hopefully, Haye takes off some of that useless muscle in his upper body and trims off the flab that he’s put on as he’s bulked up in weight. I can see the weight on Haye, especially around his jowls. I think Haye needs to burn off the blubber and trim back down to 200. I think he’d be a better fighter at that weight, and if things don’t work out for him, he can always go back to cruiserweight.