By William Mackay: World Boxing Association heavyweight champion David Haye (23-1, 21 KO’s) admits to feeling afraid of losing his heavyweight title to John Ruiz (44-8-1, 30 KO’s) when he faces him this Saturday night at the M.E.N Arena in Manchester, England. In an article at the Daily star, Haye says “In that fight [his last bout against Nikolay Valuev] the fear was a 23 stone, 7-foot 2 inch Russian freak and now the fear is losing to Ruiz. But that won’t happen. I have got to get my head straight and cannot underestimate John Ruiz. I have got to be on my game.”

Haye needs to really get his head together from the sounds of it. He’s not that good that he can just walk over a fighter like Ruiz. Haye hasn’t looked totally dominating since moving up to the heavyweight division and his performance against Valuev last November was positively dreadful. Saying that Haye looked timid in that fight would be far too kind to him. Haye looked like a short frightened rabbit as he ran around the ring in big circles all night long. He got the win, but by the narrowest of margins, but didn’t look like an improvement over the Klitschko brothers. I

n fact, I think Haye’s performance against Valuev was worse than any fight I’ve ever seen from the Klitschko, including the fights they’ve lost. There was nothing there from Haye, not aggression, not work rate and not power. He looked like a fighter that really was better suited for the cruiserweight division rather than the heavyweight level.

Haye says “Ruiz has great experience in the heavyweight division. He knocked down [Evander] Holyfield, who was never knocked down in 24 rounds with Lennox Lewis and 14 rounds with Mike Tyson. I have seen him [Ruiz] try to break arms and he is a rough character…People in Manchester appreciate good boxing. It is a treat for them to have the world champion.” Let’s hope that Haye shows some aggression this time out, because I almost fell asleep during Haye’s fight with Valuev. I think the Manchester fans will be up in arms if Haye opts to run from Ruiz all night long.

I hope he comes to fight this time, because I can’t Haye beating Ruiz if he opts to throw only 10 punches per round like he did against Valuev. Haye says he’s going to be more aggressive against Ruiz, but he said he was going to look impressive against Valuev and look what happened. I just hope Haye doesn’t turn tail and run at the first hint of aggression from Ruiz, because I want to see him show some power and ability. I can’t handle seeing a timid punch and run style like the one he showed in his last fight against Valuev.

Ruiz says he’s going to average 50 punches thrown per round. He wants to force the sometimes stamina-deficient Haye to fight harder than he normally does so he can try and tire Haye out. I’ve never seen a fight where Haye threw more than a handful of punches per round. If Ruiz can force Haye to fight and throw a lot of punches, we could see an early stoppage win for Ruiz when Haye gasses out.