By Mark Vester
John Ruiz, a two time WBA heavyweight champion, goes for a third title this weekend when he faces David Haye in Manchester. Last year when Haye beat seven-foot Nikolai Valuev for the WBA title in Germany, Ruiz fought on the undercard and watched an amazing outcome. He saw a foreign fighter comes to Germany and win a decision over a star fighter in the country.
Ruiz went to Germany three times to win a title. Twice with Valuev and once against Ruslan Chagaev. All three ended in very close decision losses. He doesn't view any of them as losses. Ruiz wants to get revenge for those losses by winning on Saturday and taking Haye's title.
"I was surprised David got a decision. I tried three times to get a decision fighting in Germany and feel like I won them all," said Ruiz. "When you get cheated that way, you want to get back there and prove people wrong.
"If I'd been properly beaten then I could have said enough is enough, but that never happened so I'm still here and I have another opportunity. Thank goodness I'm not fighting Valuev again. I'm fighting Haye and he's a better opponent for me."
Ruiz thinks the WBA were pushing for Haye to the title from Valuev. They wanted a champion to shake things up at the weight.
"I feel that sometimes an organization can get fed up with their champion," Ruiz said. "Sometimes these organizations don't like the person who's fighting and want to move them aside. But Haye did win the fight, he threw a lot more punches than Valuev. It was a close fight."
"Those two fights against Valuev were two of the easiest ones I've had. I took the fight to him and was making him go backwards. David won the title and I congratulate him, but come Saturday he's got a fight on his hands."
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