Haye gunning for Ruiz KO -- Sky Sports

Sky Sports

I can knock Ruiz out, says world heavyweight champion.

David Haye is an early finish in his first world-title defence.

The WBA heavyweight champion takes on mandatory challenger John Ruiz at the MEN Arena in Manchester on April 3, exclusively live on Sky Box Office.

Haye has promised to abandon the safety-first approach that saw him take the title from Nikolai Valuev and says he will be gunning for a knockout - even though Ruiz has only been stopped once in 54 fights.

"I'm looking at obviously boxing completely different to what I did against Valuev - that wouldn't be enough against John Ruiz," he told Sky Sports News.

"He's a pressure fighter, he's not going to out-box me - he'd be mad to try and do that. I expect him to get close, work my body, try to rough me up, drag me down and try to get me in the trenches and I will relish that opportunity.

"I think I can not only beat him, but knock him out. I think in my last fight I showed the power is there at heavyweight; I hurt him throughout the fight and obviously wobbled the big man (Valuev).

"I expect Ruiz to come with a solid gameplan, but I feel whatever he brings to the table I will find a way to counteract that and beat him - and not just beat him, but beat him spectacularly and knock him out."


Grinding

Haye though admits Ruiz will be no pushover.

The Quiet Man will be contesting his 11th world-title fight and has been in with the likes of Roy Jones Jr, Holyfield, Jameel McCline, Hasim Rahman and James Toney.

And with a new trainer on board, Haye is expecting a real war - even if it is one that won't go the distance.

"I feel he's under-rated," he said. "I've talked to people who say 'don't worry about Ruiz, you'll blast him out'. So, 'I say in 50-odd fights he's only been stopped once when he was caught cold by David Tua - and that can happen to anyone'. Those people say 'yeah, but...' so I say 'send me a video of a fight that he's looked bad in'.

"He's got a way of grinding people down, he's used to being a small guy, he's fought big guys - (Nikolai) Valuev twice, Jameel McCline, Andrew Golota, there are some big guys out there and he seems to find a way to smudge their work.


Power

"I've studied him enough to know why he does that and myself and Adam (Booth) have been working on a gameplan to deal with that. But this fight is a completely different animal to the Valuev fight; he's the same size as me, he's a lot faster than my prior opponent.

"Although people under-estimate John Ruiz's power, he managed to knock down (Evander) Holyfield not long after Lennox Lewis had 24 rounds to do that. He wasn't able to do that, Mike Tyson wasn't able to do that, but Ruiz could; he's got some power there."

And that is not the only risk Haye is taking.

In order to get a crack at Valuev in November, Haye and Sauerland, the German promotional company, had to agree to get Ruiz to give up his position as mandatory challenger.

It means there is no rematch clause for this contest. Lose and Haye will have to start again in his bid to take on the Klischko brothers and rule the division.

"I'm now the WBA heavyweight champion of the world; something I've strived all my life to become. Well, I'm now it and everybody's gunning after me," he said.

"I've spent my whole life gunning after people, they're coming after me, and my first obstacle is John Ruiz."

Source: skysports.com