MANCHESTER, England - David Haye gave boxing’s heavyweight division a blessing on Easter weekend. He gave it the blessing of hope.
The 29-year-old WBA champion may not prove to be the solution to the sorry state of that bankrupt division, but his dominating destruction of two-time champion John Ruiz on Saturday night at soldout MEN Arena at least provided the division something to look forward to.
Despite the rising tide for prize fighting around the world after a long period of decline and then dormancy, the heavyweight division has lagged in the doldrums since the retirement of Lennox Lewis
, the sporting equivalent of endlessly sagging real-estate prices. While the smaller weight classes are again flourishing, the heavyweights have been lightweights for so long one had to wonder if a savior would ever arrive.Haye may be that guy. If he is, then it will be not only because he possesses tremendous knockout power in his right hand and a willingness to throw it, but that he also has charisma, charm, bombast, unusual athleticism for a big man, a desire to be tested by the heavy metal of the division and an air of calamity that wafts around him.
The latter comes not only from the justifiable threat of what he can do to another man but also from his somewhat suspect chin. His ability to stay upright when assaulted by boxing’s biggest men remains a question, and with chin questions comes the edge of danger fans salivate over.
Saturday, he sent Ruiz crashing to the canvas twice in the first round with massive right hands, and it seemed unlikely the 38-year-old former champion would survive. Somehow he not only did, but to Haye’s utter amazement, pressured his way back into the fight.
Then - BOOM! - Ruiz was down in the fifth round from another right hand and then - BOOM! - he was down again in the sixth, delivered to the canvas in the same manner. Each time he got up slower than the previous time, his nose bent and bleeding, his face turning a blotchy purple even as he steadfastly continued to come forward trying to make a fight of it.
Haye’s confidence restored, Ruiz had no chance, a fact that began to be dawn on his corner after a bloody seventh round. Ruiz asked for one more chance and his resume said he deserved it. When he survived well enough, they gave him another round and this time Haye finished him off with a fusillade of blows that bent him over the ropes and ended his challenge at 2:01 of the ninth round.
With that concussive ending the heavyweight division was lifted up by a new personality. Former HBO Sports president Seth Abraham always used to say there were two sports of boxing. There was boxing and there was heavyweight boxing, an entity and a business unto itself.
That business has been in a recession bordering on depression since its last glorious days of Evander Holyfield, Mike Tyson, Riddick Bowe and Lewis. It has been more than a decade since they were in their heyday and the division has been ceded to a parade of Eastern European-born goliaths like the Klitschko brothers, Nikolai Valuev, Oleg Maskaev, Ruslan Chagaev and a group of American imposters.
The Klitschkos - Vitali and Wladimir - remain the best of what is a sorry lot, two brothers with technical skills and punching power, but little appeal in the U.S. market and an apparent aversion to facing anyone they think might be a danger to them.
Haye appears to be such a man. He is 24-1 with 22 knockouts, and was the former undisputed cruiserweight champ before moving up to heavyweight four fights ago.
Haye has repeatedly challenged the Klitschkos, but they argue he also backed out of agreements to fight them.
Haye admitted his next fight might have to be a Valuev rematch because he had to agree to that to get his title shot, but he quickly added, “Do I prefer that? No. I would like to fight who the people want me to fight.”
rborges@bostonherald.com
Source: news.bostonherald.com
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