By Mark Vester

WBA heavyweight champion David Haye had the crowd on fire at the MEN Arena in Manchester, England as he knocked down former champion John Ruiz four times before the veteran's trainer, Miguel Diaz, threw in the towel in the ninth round to stop the assault.

After the fight was over, Haye said the win over Ruiz was tough and he respected the effort by the former champion. He was surprised with the amount of punches Ruiz was able to take on the chin. Haye had to take some punches to land some.

"I knew it was going to be tough, I knew when I did land my bombs I would hurt him, but he's not the type of guy to get knocked spark out," Haye said. "I knew it would go something like that, I didn't anticipate getting hit as much as I did in that fight but credit to John Ruiz. I believe I am the most exciting heavyweight in the world and even against John Ruiz I can make it exciting."

There were complaints by Ruiz that Haye knocked him down more than once with punches to the back of the head. Haye made no excuses. He said the punches were throw in the heat of battle and the ref made the right call to penalize him. Haye had Ruiz down and in serious trouble in the first round. He regrets going wild while trying to finish Ruiz off.

"I lost as couple of points for rabbit punches and they were cheap shots by me, but the adrenalin was pumping. I rushed my shots a bit and if I had taken my time I could have got him out in the first round," Haye said.

Now the attention will turn to the Klitschko brothers, Wladimir and Vitali. Haye wants the WBC title from Vitali and the WBO/IBO/IBF titles from Wladimir. He expects to punish whichever brother signs for the fight.

"You are going to see the same kind of punishment [as I gave Ruiz]," Haye said.