By Scott Gilfoid: In looking at the upcoming title fight between World Boxing Association heavyweight champion David Haye (23-1, 21 KO’s) and challenger two-time heavyweight champion John Ruiz (44-8-1, 30 KO’s), I think Ruiz may have to knock Haye out if he has any hopes of winning. Frankly, I don’t give Ruiz a chance in a million to win a decision in England. I just don’t see that happening. With all those screaming fans shouting their lungs out for every missed punch that Haye throws, the judges are probably going to fall in lockstep behind all the lovesick Haye fans and end up giving the decision to the 29-year-old Haye.
Ruiz has been screwed over already in the past five years, losing two questionable decisions to Nikolay Valuev and one against Ruslan Chagaev. All three of those fights occurred in Europe. The bad news for Ruiz is that he’s going to be fighting again in Europe, but this time in England rather than Germany. Hopefully, Ruiz doesn’t find himself on the losing end of another questionable decision. Ruiz deserves better.
Haye defeated Valuev by a 12 round majority decision in November 2009, in what was one of the most boring fights I’ve ever seen in my life. I had never, until that fight, seen a fighter average only 10 punches thrown per round. This is pretty much the extent of Haye’s offensive output in that fight. Many of Haye’s fans have fell over backwards making excuses for his poor offensive performance, blaming it on a hurt hand, the size of Valuev and just basic strategy.
I wish I could buy all those excuses but I just don’t believe it. To me, Haye looked terrified against Valuev and ran around the ring trying to keep from getting clobbered by the weak-punching Russian. It worked. I got to give Haye credit for that, but he really stank out the joint with his performance. Haye was supposed to be the new breed of heavyweight, someone who was going to save the heavyweight division from the dull Klitschko brothers.
Instead, we got an even worse performance than Klitschko or Valuev fight that I’ve ever seen. And I have a feeling that in defeating Valuev and capturing his title, we have traded one boring fighter for another. I hope I’m wrong about this.
Haye needs to beat Ruiz if he wants to get a big paying unification bout against the Klitschko brothers. If Haye loses to Ruiz, his dreams of fighting the Klitschko brothers will be pretty much finished. Haye is young enough to talk his way into another title match, but if he can’t beat a fighter like Ruiz, who isn’t as young or as powerful as some of the top contenders, then I doubt Haye would have much chance against another top fighter in the division.
This is why I think it’s very important that Haye beat Ruiz, so he can avoid having to find himself talking his way back into another title shot. Haye has a gift gab, and reminds me of a young Muhammad Ali with his ability talk. He doesn’t remind me of Ali with his fighting, unfortunately. I see Haye fighting more like 41-year-old Roy Jones Jr. than Ali. The same pot shot style and same chin problem.
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