ASTONISHING CHOICE OF LOCATION FOR LONDONER HAYE vs. YANK RUIZ
THE NEWS THAT CONTRACTS HAVE BEEN SIGNED FOR DAVID HAYE TO DEFEND HIS WBA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP AGAINST HIS MANDATORY CHALLENGER JOHN, ‘THE QUIET MAN’ RUIZ ON APRIL 3RD IS AS WELCOME AS NEWS THAT YOU DON’T HAVE ‘FLU BUT YOU DO HAVE SWINE FEVER. Save
I am not sure if he acquired his nickname of ‘The Quiet Man’ because of a self –imposed voice silence or whether he had the habit of making still usually raucous fight fans who bought tickets to watch him box.
If ever there was a match made between the World champion OTT extrovert and the World’s numero uno introvert then Haye vs. Ruiz is the classic example to beat all comers.
Why the promoters Golden Boy Inc. have chosen MEN Arena in Manchester, which seats 20,000 is completely baffling unless it is meant to be a puzzle to challenge the Rubic Cube?
Manchester MEN Arena is some 200 miles from London and while Manchester sports fans are fiercely loyal to their local heroes they would consider a Londoner and a Yank to be 'foreigners.' This means ticket sales outlets are not going to be to be besieged.
Former World heavyweight champion John Ruiz surrendered his title to a blown-up middleweight Roy Jones Jr. who could not resist challenging and scalping John whose relationship with excitement is best compared to watching a full kettle boil when heated by a celebration cake candle.
Yet, despite this burden David Haye would be a fool to underestimate John Ruiz.
John has won 36 contests and KO’d 30 opponents and lost to 8 and was KO’d once by David Tua, who when he hits a brick wall the wall crumbles. David connected with John in the 1st round and it was goodnight ‘Quiet Man’.
In three encounters in the years 2000/2001 he boxed Evander Holyfield and was beaten and beat Evander and they drew once.
At the age of 38 his best boxing days are past but he is still a difficult man to beat. He is what you might call a ‘spoiler,’which means he is capable of spoling the best moves of an opponent.
If David Haye is half as good as many members of the British press corp believe him to be and 25% as good as David believes himself to be, then the record of John Ruiz will read 9 losses and this will be his last attempt to regain his World title will be lost for ever.
I am not so certain. As I have said before if there is one challenger David needed to avoid it is John Ruiz. Not because John is a lethal threat but simply because John has a style than only a manic depressive would appreciate. Frustrating is totally inadequate to describe the boxing moves of John Ruiz.
However, David had no choice. WBA allowed David to box Nikolai Valuev providing the winner accepted John as the mandatory challenger. So, if David wanted to keep his WBA he had to defend against John Ruiz.
C’est la vie. ~
