By Scott Gilfoid: Audley Harrison believes that World Boxing Association heavyweight champion David Haye (23-1, 21 KO’s) is too heavy, saying in an interview with Sky Sports, “I watched a training session from Sky Sports and his timing is off. He’s also carrying around excess weight. I know David very well and mark my words, if he doesn’t blast out Ruiz early, which is possible, then it’s going to be a tough night.” Haye will be fighting the 38-year-old Ruiz this Saturday night on April 3rd at the M.E.N. Arena, in Manchester. Haye has been talking about going out and taking Ruiz out as quickly as possible in an impressive fashion.

Haye, however, needs to look at this in a more realistic manner. Ruiz isn’t one of his over-matched, under-skilled cruiserweight opponents and he also has a better chin than many people give him credit for. If Haye goes out quickly looking to take him out early like he did Monte Barrett and Tomasz Bonin, two of his opponents at the heavyweight level, then Haye could find himself running into something from Ruiz. Haye also has the danger of running out of gas and getting stopped.

I agree with what Harrison says about Haye carrying around too much weight. Haye looks sluggish with the weight that he’s put on since moving out of the heavyweight division. He’s slowed down a lot in moving up, and his punches aren’t as powerful at this weight. Without the fast hand speed that he once had at cruiserweight, Haye’s punches are easy to see and don’t have the same impact that they did at cruiserweight. Part of the problem for Haye is that he’s aged somewhat since leaving the cruiserweight division.

It’s been two years since Haye moved up in weight. He lost a year of his career in 2009 when he wasted time going back and forth with the Klitschko brothers. When Haye finally did fight against Nikolay Valuev last November, he looked slower, and weaker than he had been a year earlier. Haye will have to be able to throw combinations if he wants to beat Ruiz. In his fight against Valuev in 2009, Haye threw mainly one punch at a time, always lunging pot shots. That won’t get the job done against Ruiz.

Haye will have to throw combinations, put his shots together and be able to fight at a normal heavyweight pace. Throwing 10 punches per round won’t get the job done I’m afraid. Haye would have been better served if he had eaten less during training and looked to take off some of that useless muscle that he carries around on his upper body.

Haye has the look of someone that has lifted weights to put on the extra weight since moving up to the heavyweight division. He also looks kind of flabby, less toned than he used to. I think this is going to hurt Haye against Ruiz.

He’ll need to be fast to beat a guy like Ruiz, because the American is capable of fighting hard for three minutes of every round unlike Haye, who is really only capable of fighting hard for a small amount of time without gassing out. The problem for Haye is once he gasses out; he stays that way and has problems recovering.