By Scott Gilfoid: Two time heavyweight champion John Ruiz (44-8-1, 30 KO’s) at least knows what he’s up against when he enters the boxing ring on Saturday night against WBA heavyweight champion David Haye (23-1, 21 KO’s) at the M.E.N. Arena, in Manchester, England. The 38-year-old Ruiz says in an article at the USA Today “It’s going to be like corralling a fleeing animal. He’s quick. David is fast and moves a lot. He gives different angles.” You can say that again, Ruiz.

Haye moves almost all the time, circling the ring constantly, trying to avoid getting hit. Ruiz is going to have to cut off the ring on Haye on Saturday night otherwise we could have another stinker like Haye’s fight against WBA heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev last November. Haye ran the entire 12 rounds in that fight an averaged like more than 10 punches thrown per round.

While Haye is running, he’s not exactly lighting up the world with a high volume work rate. I expect the same from Haye on Saturday night. If Ruiz wants to land anything in the fight, he’s going to have to cut Haye off repeatedly, and force the Brit to fight.

Haye has been talking about he intends on taking Ruiz out. Unless Haye is able to do that with one of his occasional pot shots he likes to throw, I can’t see that happening on Saturday night. Ruiz is an accomplished professional, not one of Haye’s cruiserweight opponents.

Haye says “It’s a shame America has not got any credible American challengers for the title. The ones they have are grossly overweight. The guy, Chris Arreola, who challenged Vitali Klitschko, he came in bad condition. The same thing the other night with Wladimir Klitschko and Eddie Chambers, who came in terribly out of shape? The Americans need to get their guys back in the gym, get them lean, get them healthy.”

Haye seems to be mixing up body building and boxing. A lot of fighters may not look all that good physically, but they can knock you out just like in shape looking fighters. Corrie Sanders, a knockout artist who often looked slightly fat, was one of the biggest punchers in the 90s and was able to take out Wladimir Klitschko with a 3rd round knockout in 2003.

I’m pretty sure Haye would consider Sanders fat and out of shape as well, but look at what he was able to accomplish. Besides that, I see both Chambers and Arreola beating Haye. Those guys can fight and would be a huge problem for Haye to have to deal with.

As for Saturday night, Ruiz appears to be ready to put some pressure on Haye and try to get him to fight. While Haye is looking to score a knockout, Ruiz is planning on working hard and throwing 50 punches per round. If Ruiz can throw that many punches for 12 rounds, I highly doubt that Haye will be left standing at the end of the fight. Haye is looking to take Ruiz out as fast as he can. Haye may need to because he’s got stamina problems, and could end up gassing out quickly if he’s forced to fight harder than he’s been accustomed.