David Haye expects to 'take a few' against John Ruiz in title defence -- The Guardian

By Kevin Mitchell, Guardian.co.uk

David Haye concedes he will "take a few" when the American brawler John Ruiz challenges him for his WBA heavyweight title in Manchester on Saturday, and insists this will be "the toughest fight of my life".

Yet the champion could hardly have looked more relaxed about the prospect of a fight so diametrically opposed in nearly every respect to the night in Nuremberg last November, when he waltzed around the 7ft, 22st Nikolai Valuev to win the title on points.

"Normally he goes in for a grab," Haye said of Ruiz, as he prepared for a light training session in his London gym. "Now his trainer's saying, 'Don't grab, just let your hands go.' The past three or four months that's been drilled into him. I've got my spies out there, so I know what he's doing.

"I'll take a few. This fight, you can't assume you're not going to get whacked. He's been there a long time, 54 fights, he knows how to get into range and punch. If he lets his hands go, it will suit me. You can't hit someone if they're holding on to you. If he's standing there trying to exchange with me, as soon as his hands come away from his face, it gives me a target to hit.

"I will be able to land my shots quicker than he will. He's not a slow heavyweight, he's got an effective double-jab. I've seen him use that to break people's rhythm down. But I've prepared for that. I've prepared harder for this fight than any other fight."

Haye thinks Ruiz will make the mistake of putting too much store in his only loss, a stoppage in five rounds against Carl Thompson in 2004. And he figures it will play into his hands on Saturday.

"His whole game plan is to smother me, get on top of me and try to get me into a dogfight, then hope I run out of steam – like pretty much all of my opponents. They look at the only loss I've suffered and say, 'OK, he ran out of steam there, he must have problems with his stamina.'

"Fingers crossed, Ruiz is thinking that same thing. He'll be thinking that, coming forward, getting through the early onslaught, he'll try to get me in the second half of the fight. But he doesn't realise that early onslaught is going to be so extensive that he'll be lucky to be there for the second half of the fight."

When Audley Harrison, who fights for the European title on Friday night against a former conqueror, Michael Sprott, said this week he thought Haye looked a pound or two overweight, it didn't resonate with anyone familiar with the champion's meticulous preparation. He looks as trim and as vibrant as he did before Valuev, but has made technical adjustments for Ruiz, who is roughly his own size.

His preparation last time was eccentric in the extreme as his trainer and manager, Adam Booth, found a pair of platform 'Goth' boots on which to perch, to simulate Valuev's height.

"I'm going back to what I used to do," Haye said. "This time, I'm punching at the same angles I have done since I was a kid. Adam's pretty straight-talking. He doesn't say things he doesn't believe. And he says I'm punching faster and harder than I did in the last fight and the one before that [against Monte Barrett].

"Adam's really happy where I'm at at the moment, and so am I. I feel this is my time. Come fight night, I will feel pretty much like I'm the finished product. Everything seems to have come together at the right time."

Source: guardian.co.uk