Haye to defend world heavyweight crown against Ruiz in Manchester

David Haye will defend his WBA heavyweight title against mandatory challenger John Ruiz at the M.E.N Arena in Manchester on Saturday April 3, it was confirmed today. The fight will be screened live as a pay-per-view attraction on Sky Box Office.

Haye completed his successful transition from cruiserweight to heavyweight by outfoxing lumbering giant Nikolai Valuev in Nuremberg to capture the WBA crown in November. It was an uncharacteristically cautious, but disciplined, display from Haye against the Russian beanpole. The Londoner is promising to revert to type in his first defence against Ruiz, however.

"I'm looking forward to getting back to what I do best - throwing my trademark 'Hayemakers'. Ruiz is a come-forward fighter so I aim to get at him, break him down, and take him out in good style,” revealed Haye at today’s press conference in Manchester.

The vastly experienced Ruiz, a former two-time WBA champion, has earned himself a reputation for being a spoiler but has developed a crudely effective (if infuriating to watch, at times) style during the course of his 18-year career.

"I think Ruiz is very underrated. In 50-odd fights he has only been stopped once (against David Tua in just 19 seconds in 1996), he's always grinding people down. He is used to being the small guy in the fight, he's fought some big guys, and he seems to find a way to smudge their work,” reasoned Haye.

"This fight will be completely different to the Valuev fight. He's the same size as me, a lot faster than my prior opponent and I'm looking at boxing a completely different fight,” he added.

The 38-year-old Ruiz failed to show for today’s press conference but is unlikely to be phased by the threat of Haye or at the prospect of fighting in Manchester. The man from Massachusetts was previously guided by Frank Maloney and won six fights in Britain during a spell between 1993 and 1996 and has shared a ring with the likes of Evander Holyfield, Roy Jones Jr, Nikolai Valuev, Hasim Rahman and Andrew Golota.

“John Ruiz has been at world level for a very long time and he is the master of making talented fighters look less than ordinary. He's done it throughout his career. David and I both know that this fight is a massive banana skin in David's plans of staying world champion and unifying the titles. Looking beyond John Ruiz would be the biggest mistake we could ever make and we are certainly not going to do that,” stated Haye’s trainer, Adam Booth.

Victory over Ruiz would increase the worldwide clamour to see Haye take on either of the Klitschko brothers, Wladimir and Vitali, in a money-spinning unification clash later this year. At present relations between the two camps are less than cordial, fuelled by Haye pulling out of two separate title challenges against Wladimir (last June, due to a hand injury) and subsequently Vitali (in September), after Haye claimed the terms of his contract were derisory and instead chose to fight Valuev.

Nevertheless, Haye’s ties with Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy promotions (who incidentally also promote Ruiz) and the persuasive powers of American network HBO will be hard for the Klitschkos to resist for ever, one presumes.

First, Haye must see off the awkward Ruiz which is by no means a foregone conclusion.