DAVID HAYE is ready to go to war with the Klitschko brothers 
after delivering more thrills and spills in nine rounds against John Ruiz than some fighters produce in an entire career. David Haye put veteran American Ruiz on the seat of his pants four times before his corner mercifully pulled him out of the fight in the ninth round after shipping another fusillade of lightning-fast blows.
While Haye’s threshing-machine hand speed is a thing of great beauty, there was also plenty of beast in the ring at the packed MEN Arena in Manchester on Saturday night as Ruiz took blow after blow.
Haye, who became only the second fighter to stop Ruiz in 18 years in a successful first defence of his WBA heavyweight title, will now look east to the twin threat provided by the Klitschkos, Wladimir and Vitali.
“I believe I am the best and I will fight the Klitschkos, no problem,” said the brash, confident Haye.
“Whether they will fight me remains to be seen. But I would take them on in a heartbeat.”
After this performance he will have the money-men purring. Haye has real star quality, evidenced by the 20,000 sell-out crowd who watched him overcome one of the dullest fighters the sweet science has served up in recent years.
With Nicolay Valuev seeking a rematch in October we may have to wait for a showdown with the Ukrainian Klitschkos but this was a night when Haye rubber-stamped his heavyweight credentials, even though Ruiz wobbled him at least once with stinging blows of his own.
The first round was pure theatre as Haye spread Ruiz, 38, all over the canvas in the first minute with a crashing blow to the forehead.
Former world champion Ruiz got up only to be felled again, although this time the over-eager Haye was docked two points for hitting his opponent on the back of the head.
It looked like being a quick night but Ruiz showed remarkable recovery skills and even won the fourth round as Haye took a breather.
It was to be a false dawn for Ruiz as Haye detonated a combination to drop him in the fifth round and again in the sixth.
By the eighth Ruiz, his left eye almost completely closed, had nothing left to give and when he shipped another dazzling left-right-left combination in the ninth his corner threw in the towel.
Haye said: “I was fairly pleased but at the same time I took too many shots myself, which I am not happy about. I got cut in sparring four weeks ago so I couldn’t do any sparring after that, which meant my timing was definitely not as good as it could and should have been.
“With proper sparring I would have timed my best punches a lot better, but at the same time how many people have dropped John Ruiz four times?”
Haye’s trainer and mentor Adam Booth admitted he was none to happy with the amount of shots his fighter took, but was never in any doubt whose hand would be raised at the finish. “I’m never happy when David gets hit and he got hit far too often, but I can hardly complain,” said Booth. “He got the job done, as I always knew he would, even though the lack of sparring was obviously not ideal.
“We owe the WBA a lot for getting us a shot at Valuev’s title last year, but we will sit down and discuss what is the next logical step. We won’t be rushed into anything.
“Ultimately it is up to David. He is his own man and he makes the decisions. Does he want to fight the Klitschkos? Of course he does.”
Haye is certainly a live threat to the Klitschkos’ dominance of the blue-riband heavyweight scene since Lennox Lewis’s retirement, and a showdown with either would be a mouth-watering occasion.
Critics will argue that, in Ruiz, he blew away a veteran who had lost three of his previous six fights. But he still retained a formidable chin and, as such, Haye’s achievement in stopping him should not be underestimated.
There are bigger fish out there and unlike the unfortunate granny who was tagged and curfewed for the crime of selling one to a schoolkid, Haye will be lauded, as opposed to locked up, if he does land a shot at either of the Klitschko behemoths. If and when he does, hang on to your hats.
Source: express.co.uk
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