By Scott Gilfoid: Two time heavyweight champion John Ruiz (44-8-1, 30 KO’s) will be looking to outwork World Boxing Association (WBA) heavyweight champion David Haye (23-1, 21 KO’s) this Saturday night when he meets him at the M.E.N. Arena, in Manchester, England.

According to Sky, the 38-year-old Ruiz will be looking to throw 50 punches or more per round to outwork the 29-year-old Haye.

For most heavyweights, 50 punches per round are about average and not that big of a deal. But for the heavily muscular Haye, that’s a lot of punches and it’s not clear whether Haye can maintain a pace like that. Haye usually throws very few punches per round, partly because he tends to win his fights by landing only a handful of punches but also because Haye seems to stamina issues.

If Haye is forced to fight hard and throw a lot of punches, he tends to tire easily. This was the case in his 5th round stoppage loss to Carl Thompson in 2004. Haye, who usually fights in a slow methodical way, was forced by Thompson to fight at high pace, at least for Haye. This led to Haye running out of gas quickly and ending up getting rocked repeatedly by Thompson until the fight was eventually stopped with Haye taking punishment in the 5th.

Haye’s punch out-put in many of his fights is similar to super middleweight Arthur Abraham. Neither of these two fighters is good for fighting hard for three minutes of every round because of the excess muscle they carry on their small frames. Think of them body builder types who upon entering a long run opt to trail behind the pack at an abnormally slow pace. Neither of them can race with the faster, sleeker heavyweights because of the muscle they have to carry around. Instead, they like to keep things slow, conserve their energy and look to land one big shot.

Ruiz, speaking of setting a fast pace of 50 punches per round, says “That is the kind of pace I need to set. If I don’t set that kind of pace, then I might as well pack my bags and go home. That is my game plan, to fight him and stay on him and make sure he is in for a long one here.” This is bad news for Haye, because if Ruiz is able to force him to fight harder than he usually does, Haye could find himself running out of gas quickly. Haye, once he’s tired, tends to lose his legs and just throw arm punches.

If Ruiz can get Haye in that condition, the British fighter probably has little chance to win because Ruiz can take a heck of a shot and continue to throw. Haye would find himself having to take Ruiz’s punches for 12 rounds. I’m not so sure Haye can do that. Haye will likely try to run from Ruiz like he did against WBA heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev in November. Haye did so much running in that fight that he threw even less punches than normal, averaging a pitiful 10 punches per round.

I suspect Haye will have to throw a lot more than that against Ruiz if he wants to win. Haye will have problems trying to stay away from Ruiz, because the American will have little problem catching up to Haye and forcing him to fight. Haye is not light on his fight, and looks sluggish when he’s moving laterally. Andre Dirrell, Haye is not. He’s going to have to abandon his running at some point when he discovers that Ruiz is too good at cutting off the ring. I just hope that Haye doesn’t persist with his running and end up tiring even quicker than he did against Thompson.