by James Slater – We aren’t sure exactly when the fight will take place, but new WBA heavyweight champion David Haye WILL meet John Ruiz some time next year, in his first defence of the belt. Mandatory challenger and former two-time WBA champ Ruiz has already began talking about the fight, and he told The Times recently how he feels Haye is a “runner,” and that his style is good for him. For his part, Haye said shortly after his points win over Nikolai Valuev that he plans to knock Ruiz out. But doing this has proven a tough job for every single opponent “The Quiet Man” has met. Except one..
Back in 1996, before either man’s career had really had a chance to take off, David Tua utterly destroyed John Ruiz, in less than 20 seconds! However, that devastating loss aside, Ruiz, today boasting a 44-8-1(30) record, has proven himself to be one durable fighter – often to the annoyance of the fans.
Adept at holding an opponent and thus frustrating them, Ruiz has gone the distance in a number of bouts (scoring just four stoppage wins in the last ten years). And this style and approach has long since turned off many a fan. Dubbing the 37-year-old as “the heavyweight who just won’t go away,” fans all over look back to the KO Tua scored over Ruiz and hope; hope another fighter will come along and do the same thing to the Puerto Rican, and send him far away from within reach of another heavyweight title fight (Ruiz has had no less than five challenges for the WBA belt, and the Haye fight will mark a sixth). Could Haye be the man to give these fans that which they crave?
The reason Ruiz has hung on in there and battled back from losses to Evander Holyfield, Roy Jones Junior, Nikolai valuev (twice) and Ruslan Chagaev may be because he was not stopped in any of these defeats. Would a brutal KO, similar to the one he suffered at the hands of Tua, make Ruiz think about finally calling it a day? With no possible argument about having been robbed to make, Ruiz would likely retire if he were smashed to a second stoppage loss. His confidence shattered and with insufficient time to set about rebuilding it, a KO loss to Haye would very probably force “The Quiet Man” to say goodbye.
And how much would the fans who have long since grown weary of Ruiz thank “The Hayemaker” if he did indeed manage to flatten the most stubborn of big men? Haye says he wants to do nothing but good things for the heavyweight division, and that he wants to provide the paying customers with excitement and value for money. Should he manage to stop John Ruiz – even if it’s inside 20-seconds – no-one will be asking for their money back!
Realistically, however, Haye will almost certainly find Ruiz as difficult and as annoying to face as many of his predecessors did. But we can hope, can’t we?