David Haye claims he will hide away for a year if he loses his WBA heavyweight title to John Ruiz. Haye is desperate not to suffer the same fate as Frank Bruno did in 1996 when he lost his crown to Mike Tyson in his first defence.
The two-weight world champ says he was gutted for Bruno back then as a teenage fan.
The South Londoner admits losing to Ruiz tomorrow at Manchester's MEN Arena after claiming the title from Nikolai Valuev would be even worse than when he suffered his only pro defeat to Carl Thompson in 2004.
"Winning the title and then losing it to John Ruiz would be devastating," said Haye at yesterday's head-to-head at Manchester Town Hall.
"I'd be devastated by that. It would feel a lot worse than I did when I lost to Carl Thompson.
"Then I had the excuse of being a novice. This time I have no excuse. After the Carl Thompson defeat, I went away for a couple of weeks. This one would be so much worse, I'd probably want to duck out for a year. Just get away from everything.
"Every champion knows the high of winning can quickly turn to the opposite feeling if things go wrong in the first defence.
"He went from such a high when he won to getting blasted by Mike Tyson. I remember being on a real downer afterwards - and that was just me as a fan.
"That fear of losing is my main motivation. I've got to believe I'm a true winner and that's all I'm thinking about. I just want people to know I'm the best.
"People talk about fighters being two-time or three-time, I want to be the one-time undisputed champion. That's the plan."
Haye, 29, knows his dreams of beating the Klitschko brothers to unify the heavyweight titles rest on this first defence against twotime champ Ruiz and his mentor Adam Booth claims the American is dangerous.
Haye's manager and trainer rubbished talk that at 38, Ruiz is past it, claiming he has been rejuvenated under new trainer Miguel Diaz.
"John Ruiz is the hardest fight out there for David and there's only Vitali Klitschko who can compare," said Booth. "John Ruiz is a seasoned and successful heavyweight, who has been at the top for a long time.
"I've watched a lot of his tapes and I'm seeing a lot of the little signs, the signs that make you recognise that he has been renewed.
"People say that at 38, his best days are behind him, but I don't agree with that. I believe John Ruiz's worst days are behind him and that his best days are now. We have prepared accordingly."
Ruiz, who is bidding to join Muhammad Ali and Evander Holyfield in the exclusive club of three-time world heavyweight champs, has been in training in Las Vegas for three months and Diaz doubts Haye's stamina.
He feels the Hayemaker's struggles against Giacobbe Fragomeni in 2006 when they fought for the European cruiserweight title before he won in the ninth suggests he may not be able to handle the pressure.
"Haye was winning up to the fifth round and he was then in trouble and was cut," said Diaz.
"I know he eventually won, but that tells me that I don't know if he can take the heat in the kitchen."
Haye laughed off Diaz's claims and feels Ruiz's camp are getting desperate if they have picked out that fight as a sign that he is vulnerable.
"I knocked him out in the ninth round, so I don't know what confidence they can take from that," he said.
"If Ruiz is expecting that David Haye to turn up, he's going to be disappointed. I'm bigger, faster, stronger than then."
Source: mirror.co.uk
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