By Scott Gilfoid: Adam Booth, the trainer of World Boxing Association heavyweight champion David Haye (23-1, 21 KO’s) says in an article at Sky Sports that his fighter Haye is going to go after two-time heavyweight champion John Ruiz (44-8-1, 30 KO’s) early in their fight on April 3rd to try and “get respect.” Booth says “And if you run, the less power you’ve got in your shots. With Ruiz, you have to bang hard and bang for 12 rounds so we know it’s not a question of running from Ruiz. It’s a question of getting his respect and hurting him early, and dominating the fight from the center of the ring.” That sounds good in theory, but it might not be all that practical for Haye to try and carry out this game plan.

I know Roy Jones Jr., a great fighter who moved up in weight to the heavyweight division to beat Ruiz in 2003, landed some hard shots in the first two rounds against Ruiz to gain respect. Ruiz seemed hesitant to do anything with Jones for the rest of the fight after getting hit with some hard shots in the first two rounds.

However, Ruiz landed some big shots of his own during those first couple of rounds, and I’m not sure that Haye could have taken the shots that Jones took from Ruiz back in 2003. I think if Booth has Haye coming out slugging in the first two rounds, it’s going to backfire on Haye and Booth with Ruiz landing something big and stretching Haye for the count.

Haye doesn’t seem to have the same power at heavyweight that he had at cruiserweight, and his hand speed isn’t anything special either since packing on nearly 20 pounds of useless muscle. Haye’s chin isn’t good, and if he gets hit with anything from Ruiz, I think Haye won’t survive. Ruiz isn’t considered a big puncher, but he has pretty good power, especially if he can get to you.

He’s very good at landing his shots and keeping his opponents from getting their own punches in. Ruiz is especially good at fighting at close range where he is dangerous with his body shots and uppercuts. Haye is more of a pot shot fighter who does his best work from the outside.

At close range, Haye looks very uncomfortable, like a big fish out of water. Haye doesn’t like to get hit and generally runs for the hills at the first signs of danger. However, there won’t be any place for Haye to run to because Ruiz has better foot speed than Haye, and is extremely good at cutting off the ring on his opponents.

Look at any of Ruiz’s fights and you’ll see what I’m talking about. He’s not a big heavyweight at 6’2” 227, and is very fast on his feet. If Haye tries to run from Ruiz like he did in his last fight against Nikolay Valuev, I can see Ruiz quickly closing the distance and forcing Haye to fight whether he likes it or not.

Booth says “David is a natural fighter, he loves getting in there close and trading blows.” I don’t agree with that assessment of Haye at all. Haye never gets in close with his opponents unless he can stun them first with a pot shot. If he has an opponent hurt, then Haye gets brave and goes after them with power shots. But Haye always works from the outside with his pot shots.

If you block his shots or get out of the way of them, he’s harmless. Haye is also harmless at close range. And his power, like I said, isn’t comparable to the big punching heavyweights like the Klitschko brothers and Samuel Peter. Ruiz is going to find out very quickly that Haye’s shots aren’t that big of a deal and once that happens, you can look for Haye to have a lot of problems with Ruiz.