By Dennis Broadhurst: WBA Heavyweight Champion, David Haye (23-1 21kos) takes on former two-time WBA Heavyweight Champion, John Ruiz (44-8-1 30kos) this Saturday night. This is a fighter which has great experience at heavyweight against fighters such as Evander Holyfield, Hasim Rahman and James Toney while Haye has only 3 heavyweight fights on his entire record, wins over; Tomasz Bonin, Monte Barrett and Nikolai Valuev. Divid Haye would be silly to overlook this challenge but should be able to use his great speed and power, and youth to take Ruiz out as promised.

If Haye gets past Ruiz then there may be the issue of fighting Nikolai Valuev again. Haye won his title from Valuev by a split decision, Haye used lots of movement and had a very low workrate in the fight, however, Valuev barely managed to touch Haye and only landed a few weak punches on Haye. Haye managed to wobble Valuev in the last round with a hook, something nobody has done in the past, judging on the first fight it is hard to imagine Valuev beating Haye in a rematch.

If/when Haye gets these opponents out of the way, the two big money fights are against Wladimir (54-3 48kos) and Vitali Klitschko (39-2 37kos). Haye and the Klitschkos are the only fighters in the heavyweight division in their class with the possible exceptions of Cuban, Odlanier Solis and American, Chris Arreola, however, these two fighters would probably need to cut the pastries abit and lose some weight.

Haye vs Wladimir Klitschko – Waldimir Klitschko is possibly more dangerous than his older brother Vitali but does not possess the toughness of his brother, Wladimir has been stopped in the past three times in the past and has been decked many times. Haye has also had his problems in the chin department, being stopped early on in his career and being decked several times.

Both fighters have got up when they have been decked, showing great heart. Wladimir Klitschko is great at fighting when he can keep fighters at bay with his ramrod jab and hard right hand, he also has a great left hook as shown in impressive knockouts over Ray Austin and Eddie Chambers, however, he often throws this sparingly.

Haye has great hooks and a good right hand but would not be able to use a jab against a tall opponent such as Klitschko. Haye would have to press for the knockout, coming in hard and trying to land his bombs on Wladimir’s weak chin, in this case Haye would leave his own chin exposed and risk being hit with a big shot. We know that both of these fighters can easily knock each other out, Haye has been hurt by cruiserweights in the past and so Klitschko at 245lbs would have no problems hurting Haye if he got to him, in Haye’s case he badly wobbled former champion, 300+lb Nikolai Valuev in his last fight which is something we hadn’t seen anyone do, Klitschko has been hurt by big punchers ain the past and Haye is as big a puncher as you get.

If Haye tried to use his movement with his hands down by his sides, trying to fight on the outside, Klitschko would most likely cut off the ring and stop Haye as Klitschko would be in his comfort zone of pressing forward behind his straight punches. However, if Haye used his advantages, in being smaller, to get inside then he would be at the advantage, Klitschko’s straights would be more or less harmless and he would be too busy looking for the clinch to throw his left hook, which as I mentioned he already does sparingly. If Haye was on the inside then Wladimir would be very uncomfortable and whilst grabbing out for the clinch would be open to Haye’s punches.

It depends which Haye shows up, if he comes in timid, moving too much then he would probably end up gassing out and being caught by Klitschko, Haye does not have the best stamina in the world and Klitschko would press forward harder than Valuev did, with faster hands and more power and so Haye would have to be even faster and more cautious than in the Valuev fight. However, if a Haye shows up who is aggressive and gets on the inside, he should be able to limit Wladimir’s ranged attack and get inside with his hooks, stopping Wladimir and gaining a lot of respect.