By Scott Gilfoid: WBA heavyweight champion David Haye came in five pounds heavier at today’s weigh-in compared to his last bout against World Boxing Association heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev. Haye, 29, weighed in at a career high of 222, a total of five pounds heavier than his highest weight of 217. This may seem insignificant but when you have a small frame like Haye, it could amount to a lot of excess weight. Ruiz weighed 231 at today’s weigh-in. That’s a good weight for him, as he’s weighed in close to 240 in some of his fights.

I’m kind of concerned about Haye, though. He’s been looking fleshy in the past couple of months as he’s gone through training, and I have to wonder what he’s been putting down his trap. 222 is light for some of the bigger heavyweights in the division like the Klischko brothers, who weigh in the 240s. However, Haye isn’t a big heavyweight by any means with his small frame and skinny legs.

222 might be too much weight for him to carry around, because Haye looked slightly chubby in his last fight against Valuev and seemed slow in moving around the ring. Haye says “I’m fighting someone my own size, so that should be easier. It’s going to be completely different this time around. Ruiz will be tough but the plan is to render him unconscious.”

That sounds nice but Haye may not have to physical tools to make that happen if he’s forced to carry around extra weight on his frame. In recent photos of him, Haye has been looking heavier than usual, especially around the jowls. That’s usually a good sign of whether a fighter is carrying excess fat on their frame.

Based on how Haye has looked lately, I’d say he has at least 10 pounds of extra fat that he should have trimmed off for this fight to make him leaner and in better shape to run from Ruiz if need be. Haye is talking about going out and knocking Ruiz out, but I doubt that. Haye will likely choose to move for 12 rounds, throwing an occasional punch and looking to squeak out a decision fighting in front of a home crowd at the M.E.N. Arena, in Manchester, England.

If the fight is even remotely close, you have to expect that Haye, the home fighter and the current champion, will get the benefit of the doubt. As such, Ruiz will have to really put in an impressive performance against Haye if he wants to walk out of Saturday night’s fight with the WBA title in his possession.

If Ruiz wins the title, he would fall into a select club of being one of the few heavyweights that have captured the heavyweight title on three separate occasions. Although he’s 38-years-old, Ruiz is still fighting at a very high level for his age and is quite capable of knocking Haye out if he lands some hard punches to the fragile chin of Haye.

This bout has importance for Haye in that he needs it to keep in the running for a huge mega fight against one of the Klitschko brothers. If Haye loses the fight, he’s hinted about disappearing for a long stretch of time to get away from the public.