By William Mackay: On April 3rd, boxing fans will get to see whether WBA heavyweight champion David Haye (23-1, 21 KO’s) is for real or not when he steps it up and fights former two time heavyweight champion John Ruiz (44-8-1, 30 KO’s) when the two fighters meet at the M.E.N. Arena, Manchester, Lancashire. Haye, 29, has failed to live up to expectations that some people had about him when he moved up to the heavyweight division.

Although Haye did capture the World Boxing Association heavyweight title last November with s dreadfully lackluster 12 round majority decision over WBA heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev, it wasn’t even remotely an impressive performance by Haye. In comparing it to Valuev’s last fight before that against 46-year-old Evander Holyfield, Haye looked the poorer, and it’s odd that Haye was given a narrow decision and yet Holyfield came off losing.

Haye averaged only 10 punches thrown per round against Valuev, and had a poor punch connect total in that fight. Haye’s fight before that, he defeated Monte Barrett by a 5th round knockout and looked very basic in that fight, even though he did eventually stop Barrett. What we’ve seen in Haye’s fights against Valuev and Barrett is that Haye hasn’t shown the same ability that he possessed as a much smaller cruiserweight.

It could be that Haye has lost his speed and power in moving up in weight against the bigger fighters or it could be that Haye is trying to protect his glass jaw from getting tagged and causing him to get stopped again. Before anyone says that the 38-year-old Ruiz is too old to stop Haye, let me remind you that Carl Thompson was 40-years-old when he stopped Haye in the 5th round in 2004.

Haye has since won 13 straight fights, stopping 11 of his opponents in the past six years. However, Haye’s opposition during that time has been spotty, to say the least. The best fighters that Haye has defeated during those years are as follows: Enzo Maccarinelli, Jean Marc Mormeck, Valuev, Alexander Gurov, Glen Kelly and Barrett. Those are decent fighters, but not great ones. Those are fighters that you need to beat in order to get to the really good guys.

Unfortunately, Haye never fought top cruiserweight Tomas Adamek, Ola Afolabi or Marco Huck while he was in the cruiserweight division. That’s too bad, because I would pick anyone of those three to defeat every one of Haye’s opponents during the past six years, and I also think Huck, Adamek and Afolabi would beat every one of Haye’s opponents, even Thompson, if they were matched against them during their careers.

I think Ruiz has an excellent chance of beating Haye in this fight, and stopping him. I see it that way because of Haye’s weak chin, which puts him in danger against any heavyweight that can punch a little, and because Haye is probably going to be trying to slug it out against Ruiz. Haye might think that he has a chance to score an impressive knockout against an old and weak foe.

If Haye does this, I see Ruiz wasting little time in knocking Haye out and ending the Haye hype once and for all. A knockout by Ruiz would be a crushing blow to Haye’s career and he would likely have little choice but to go back down to the cruiserweight division where he would have a better chance of being a contender.