By Eric Thomas: Making his first defense of his title, World Boxing Association heavyweight champion David Haye (24-1, 22 KO’s) was quite pleased at the sellout crowd of 20,000 fans that came to see his fight against John Ruiz (44-9-1, 30 KO’s) last Saturday night at the M.E.N. Arena, in Manchester, England. Haye, 29, fighting with a lot of motivation backed by the loud support of the crowd took the 38-year-old Ruiz apart, knocking him down four times before the fight was stopped by Ruiz’s corner throwing in the towel in the 9th round.

Haye could be facing the Klitschko brothers next or possibly a rematch with former World Boxing Association heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev. Whoever winds up as Haye’s next opponent, he wants the fight to take place in England. In an article at the Sportinglife, Haye said “I got more satisfaction from the Ruiz fight because it was on home soil. It was an amazing atmosphere. It gave me goose bumps. I loved every second of it. Why would I want to fight anywhere else when I can have experiences like that? I’d like to fight in London, but I can’t see how the reception would be better than the M.E.N.”

If Haye fights Valuev, then the fight will be wherever Haye chooses it to be. Valuev won’t have much say so of where the fight will take place because he no longer holds a title. Haye fought Valuev in Germany last November, beating him by a close 12 round majority decision. Without a large British crowd backing him, Haye fought in a timid manner, looking anything but confident against the seven foot Russian.

However, against Ruiz, who at 38 appears to have lost a step or two in the past five years, Haye looked very impressive with his power shots. Haye came out fast in the 1st round and dropped Ruiz with a lightning fast right hand to the head in the first 25 seconds of the round. The crowd may have gotten Haye a little too pumped up at that point, as Haye got overeager and started throwing punches without aiming them and ended up missing a lot of shots and punching himself out in the process. However, Haye regained composure in the following rounds and fought at a much more measured pace to pound Ruiz into submission, knocking him down two more times – once in the 5th and a final time in the 6th.

If Haye does end up fighting one of the Klitschko brothers, the fight might not take place in England. The Klitschkos, both of them, have much more experience at heavyweight than Haye, and will likely be in the driving position to choose where the fight will take place. Haye is still building a following, but unfortunately he’s still a virtual unknown in places like the United States, where the Klitschkos have both appeared periodically over the years.

Haye says “I’d love to fight at Wembly, maybe for one of the unification fights.” If Haye does fight in England, it would take cooperation from the Klitschkos. In the past, they were open to fighting there, but they wanted to ensure that it would have a huge crowd. Haye is a popular fighter in the UK, but he hasn’t yet fought in front of 60,000 fans like Wladimir Klitschko did in his fight against Ruslan Chagaev.
Haye is proud of his recent win over Ruiz, saying “People can use that as a measuring stick. Before Ruiz, they could only judge me on the Monte Barrett and Nikolay Valuev fights and pick holes in those performances. “