Thompson predicts tough world title defence for Haye
Carl ‘The Cat’ Thompson believes David Haye will get taken into the trenches by challenger John Ruiz in the maiden defence of his WBA heavyweight title at the M.E.N Arena in Manchester on Saturday night.
Former WBO cruiserweight king Thompson, who famously snapped Haye’s unbeaten record six years ago, fears Ruiz could cause an upset if he is able to follow his successful blueprint by making Haye fight for every second, of every round.
“I really hope David wins on Saturday because he is wonderful for British boxing and has helped fill the void left behind by Frank Bruno and Lennox Lewis. The last thing we want is an American (Ruiz) going home with our belt,” began Thompson in a touching show of solidarity for his former foe.
“Ruiz has said that he is going to apply lots of pressure which could make things very difficult for David as he’s a much bigger guy. I’m sure Ruiz will have watched the tape of my fight with Haye and noted that I was able to take David’s best shots and then come back with my own and capitalise when he was looking to take a breather.”
Veteran crowd-pleaser Thompson, now aged 46, was given a pasting in the early stages but eventually overwhelmed an exhausted Haye after five see-saw rounds in a huge upset back in September 2004.
“David threw everything at me but on that particular night I was able to show a good chin for some reason which was nice,” joked Thompson, who like the majority of big-punchers could also be fragile himself.
“No matter what he threw at me I made sure I kept on punching him back and eventually he couldn’t withstand the pressure because he’d gassed himself out earlier. The key is to make David fight when he doesn’t want to by constantly throwing punches and staying on top of him. If Ruiz is able to follow the same plan as me he could win but David has learnt a lot from our fight and done tremendously since then,” continued Thompson.
‘The Cat’ was forced to hang up his gloves after outpointing Frederic Serrat in November 2005 due to a persistent groin injury which restricted his movement but has paid close attention to Haye’s progress.
“David has taken advantage of the huge gap in quality in the heavyweight division and come along at the right time. I’m very proud to be the only person to beat him but my victory will mean so much more if Haye is able to go on and beat the Klitschko brothers so naturally I want him to fight them after Ruiz,” reasoned Thompson.
“Haye may have won the belt against Valuev but his performance or the fighter he beat wasn’t very impressive. I’m a perfectionist myself so I really want David to take it to the next level and beat the Klitschkos as ultimately this will reflect more favourably on my own career accomplishments,” he added.
