By Terence Dooley
David Haye is set to take on America’s John Ruiz, 44-8-1 (30 early), in defence of the WBA heavyweight title this Saturday night yet ‘The Hayemaker’ still has Vitali Klitschko in his long-term plans. Haye, who makes the maiden defence of the title he won by defeating Nikolay Valuev on a majority decision last November, believes that Vitali, 38, will not retire until he has faced him.
“Vitali seems to be making more noise than Wladimir. So forget all those rumours about him retiring soon. Vitali won't quit until me and him have been in the ring. I'd love for that to be at Wembley Stadium and I think the Klitschkos know they'll make more money fighting me over here,” said Haye when speaking to Boxing News .
Haye’s chat has angered Vitali and his brother, Wladimir, and the cocksure 29-year-old now hopes to send out an in-ring message to the Ukrainians with a punctuation win over Ruiz. John, 38, lost his last title fight, on points to Valuev, but kept himself in contention with a seventh round TKO over Adnan Serin.
Ruiz, a former two-time WBA title holder, has often found himself cast in the role of the underdog, a nineteen-second KO loss to David Tua early in his career saw Ruiz written off but he adapted his style and fought his way back to the top of the heavyweight tree by going 1-1-1 with Evander Holyfield in their gruelling (especially for the viewers) WBA title trilogy.
Haye, 23-1 (21), will be a red-hot favourite when he enters the ring at the MEN, Manchester this Saturday night; Ruiz, though, knows that this is his last chance and will have worked hard on a gameplan, his best chance will be to drag Haye into the later rounds. However, Haye looks serenely confident ahead of this one and he is intent on making a statement come the first bell, look for Haye to bombard and batter the game challenger into defeat within three rounds.
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