David Haye "I'm the hardest punching fighter pound-for-pound in the world"

THE HEAT: Can Haye stand it? DAVID HAYE and John Ruiz came face to face yesterday at Manchester Citys town hall when the final press conference was held before Saturdays WBA heavyweight title fight. Both fighters were confident of a win in front of the Sky Sports cameras but were also very respectful of each others abilities. Adam Booth and Miguel Diaz where also in attendance. DAVID HAYE On Ruizs strengths : There is not one danger. He is very good at everything he does but I wouldnt say he is exceptional in any one area. He has good defence, good attack, he has all the punches in the book and thats what makes him effective. Whenever he has fought, his previous opponents have underestimated him and come out with a silly gameplan, they havent studied him like they should and things have gone pear-shaped but Im not going to fall into that trap. On the lack of trash talk :John Ruiz has been here before and hes heard it all before. Ive heard people in the past over the years giving him abuse verbally and he does the same job every time. When the first bell goes he does his talking in the ring and Im aware of that so it would be a waste of time giving him too much verbal. On how he will win the fight :I have been hitting quite hard and I always punch hard and I dont think Ive ever fought a guy before that I didnt badly hurt in the pros or amateurs so I think that tells my punch power. I believe Im the hardest punching fighter pound-for-pound in the world and this will be a good indication of how hard I hit. John Ruiz got stopped 14 years ago early after getting caught cold against one of the biggest punchers of the last 10 years and stuff like that happens. Since then he hasnt shown any signs of a weak punch resistance but im looking at making a statement and going out there and doing something dramatic and people are going to be shocked. ADAM BOOTH (TRAINER FOR DAVID HAYE) On Ruizs age Somebody said to me the otherday about Johns age and asked did I think his best days were behind him. I have watched lots of little things from his training that show signs of a man who has got a renewed vigour about him. I believe John Ruizs worst days are behind him and his best days are now and we have prepared accordingly. On the respect the two boxers have shown :You have two guys here who are in good condition, one heavyweight champion and one challenger. There is no need for trash talk. And no matter what anyone says on Saturday you are going to get one of the best fights British boxing has seen in a very long time for the world heavyweight title. Just step back and watch the guys shake hands and look at the respect the two guys have for each other. David has more respect for John Ruiz than anyone else he has ever boxed before. JOHN RUIZ On Hayes strengths :Like many people say, he is fast and tends to move around a lot. He gives many different angles and its a fight I have to be prepared for. I have never really studied him, I am more worried about myself. I want to make sure I?m in top shape because when I start worrying about someone else I tend to lose ground on my own personal training but I see it as a tough fight. Thats the only way Im going to see it. He didnt win that title by someone giving it to him. He went out and won it and deserved it but Saturdays another day. On his own age :Age is just a number, it depends on how you feel especially how to train and how determined you are to win. I always said I didnt have the greatest talent in the world but one thing I always took pride in is my determination to make the best fight out of everything and win. On his chances of winning :I dont need to say Im going to win as I wouldnt be here if I didnt think that. There is no point in thinking of anything other than winning otherwise id rather go home today and move on with my life. Thats my personality, every fight I go into is going to be a win. The day I have to prove it is Saturday. MIGUEL DIAZ (TRAINER FOR JOHN RUIZ)On David Haye :Out of all the tapes I have watched of David the one I paid most attention to is Fragomeni. The Thompson fight has no reference to me as David had only 10 fights at the time. When he fought Fragomeni he was boxing a very small guy with short arms and he was beating him to the five-round point but Fragomeni made the later rounds look a different fight so that tells me that maybe he cant take the heat of the kitchen. He has to prove it this fight that he can take the heat and I expect a great fight from him and I expect a great fight from my fighter.

Comments (20)

Good for you Haye. Now take care of Ruiz and use your power against Wlad or Vitali.

16y ago

nomadman

I think Darchinyan's power is quite overrated, he can unload quite well, but he just does not find the beast routes for his punches. That's the thing with evaluating a fighter's punching 'power', it's rarely the result of one single attribute but usually a combination of things: speed and precision, technique and timing, muscular strength and ability to throw one's physical mass into the punch, etc etc. In terms of just raw physical power I think Darch is well up there, as well as guys like Miranda, Cintron, even Samuel Peter. But like you said, his style doesn't often give him the best opportunities to land that power punch with maximum effectiveness.

16y ago

nomadman

Haye hits hard but he's full of it. He aint a cruiser no more. He cant knock these guys out as easy. Sure if he swings like a wild idiot and puts his whole body weight into it he hits hard. But that leaves him wide open. A good counter puncher destroys him. He's overrated and until he fights a Klitschko or a top American contender He'll keep his belt and only fight bums This is a good point. Haye generates a lot of power with his wild haymakers when he has the space to load them up, but he knows he can't fight like that against Wlad or gets knocked out. Can he still generate the same type of power with shorter, crisper shots, and from positions where he can't set his feet properly or is moving in at weird angles just to get inside of Wlad's left hand? The last opponent who was able to land on Wlad with any degree of success was Samuel Peter, and Peter's an extremely large and durable guy who was able to throw without fear of getting knocked out. And that was five years ago.

16y ago

nomadman

Well, his speed and precision is the result of his technique. Look at the first knockdown in the vid I posted. He fakes the left, makes shufford extend his hands and smacks him with a quick, short right hand from an angle that he was able to reach just because he is so damn wide. It is especially apparent from another angle view. This is what boxing skill(and basis) is about, if I ever knew anything about boxing, finding these special sports to him from where your opponent is about. He also varies the speed of his left and right, where he paws his left much slower then he hit with the right Agree with you for the most part, though I still think raw hand speed is a separate factor. Whilst good technique can shorten the time it takes for a shot to land, and certainly improves precision, I don't think Wlad's hands now are as fast as, say, Chambers's or Haye's. Ultimately, in Chambers's case, it didn't matter because all of Wlad's other attributes came into play, and this is one of the reasons why I don't believe Haye has much of a chance in hell of beating him, despite his demonstrably faster punches.

16y ago

Tmb04

16y ago

Finn73

It connected pretty flush on Dirrell. But yeah, I agree with you. Darch hits pretty damn hard too. You're right, but a good KO punch also depends on your position and the distance between you and your opponent. If Dirrell would've got hit by the punches that landed on Gevor, Miranda or Taylor, the fight wouldn't have lasted 11 rounds. He didn't which is his own achievement - well done!

16y ago

nomadman

Abraham is p4p the hardest puncher - he needs no second punch if the Abrahammer connects flush. It connected pretty flush on Dirrell. But yeah, I agree with you. Darch hits pretty damn hard too.

16y ago

Finn73

Abraham is p4p the hardest puncher - he needs no second punch if the Abrahammer connects flush.

16y ago

nomadman

Wlad is so big, he does not actually have to punch hard in order to get them out and flying. Wlad's main asset though is his speed, for such a big guy I dont think anyone was able to match his speed and precision. I'd say several fighters he fought in the past could've matched or bettered his speed (though for such a big guy he does have unbelievably fast hands). The difference is, that not only does he have very good raw hand speed and precision, but the technique, reach, height and footwork that allows him to land his hard shots time and again with full force. This combination is absolutely deadly and easily trumps any one single attribute that other fighters might have in greater quantity.

16y ago

nomadman

exactly, george foreman said wlad was one of the hardest punchers ever emmanuel steward said wlad was one of the hardest punchers ever... people like to forget about these quotes, but if a famous boxing legend said something bad about the klitschkos everybody would believe them I generally discard what other fighters and trainers have to say, or at least try to take it with a grain of salt, even if they're being complimentary about fighters I like. At the end of the day, they're just another man with an opinion, and I've always preferred to base my opinions of what my own eyes tell me, not someone else's. Wlad is definitely a hard puncher, but I don't think he's the hardest of the past thirty years, not even the hardest out of the guys fighting now. Nonetheless, Wlad's height and excellent boxing ability allows him to land his hard shots where others cannot. Raw power is fairly useless, if you can't land it. I'm looking at you David Tua! :D

16y ago

nomadman

That sounds like a terrible fight plan to me. The are trying to fight Haye like Fragomeni did? That's gonna be a hug - n - punch fight, terrible to watch but I guess effective for Ruiz, that was his old ways of fighting so I can't see any new about him, unless the are trying to pull a rabbit here. Surely any game plan which increases a fighter's chance of winning isn't terrible, is it? Or are you talking from a fan's point of view?

16y ago

THE_NAMELESS

that's bullshit!!

16y ago

nomadman

I agree with this, Haye has a chance to beat Wlad but Wlad is a very good boxer, he's just dull as hell. it's 75/25 fight in Wlads favour. Big V on the other hand would spank Haye 99/100 Whilst I think both brothers would win, I'd actually give Wlad the slightly better chance of beating Haye. Vitali has become more hittable in recent years, and there's always the worry that his body is going to give out in a fight, or he becomes old overnight. Also, the speed difference will be much more noticeable than against Wlad. To top it off, Vitali's willingness to mix it up with his opponents gives Haye that tiny spark of hope to land something of consequence, a spark which I think is virtually absent against Wlad.

16y ago

southpaw_07

MIGUEL DIAZ (TRAINER FOR JOHN RUIZ)On David Haye :Out of all the tapes I have watched of David the one I paid most attention to is Fragomeni. The Thompson fight has no reference to me as David had only 10 fights at the time. When he fought Fragomeni he was boxing a very small guy with short arms and he was beating him to the five-round point but Fragomeni made the later rounds look a different fight so that tells me that maybe he cant take the heat of the kitchen. That sounds like a terrible fight plan to me. The are trying to fight Haye like Fragomeni did? That's gonna be a hug - n - punch fight, terrible to watch but I guess effective for Ruiz, that was his old ways of fighting so I can't see any new about him, unless the are trying to pull a rabbit here.

16y ago

BigStereotype

I think Haye probably hits harder than a prime George Foreman Yeah, Foreman was a pussy. Then again, not hitting as hard as Haye is nothing to be ashamed of. He'd one punch Superman, right? Because he hits soooo much harder than Foreman... Do you actually watch boxing?

16y ago

Allucard

so who is the hardest hitter at heavy if its not haye then? Both Klitschkos hit much harder. People underestimate that because their punches are slow. But the sheer mass behind a shot, even a jab is unimaginable. They should have a division of their own at risk of someone getting seriously hurt. Imagine if they would swing hooks, heads would be coming off.

16y ago

DeLaHoya1fan

I think Haye probably hits harder than a prime George Foreman

16y ago

hammerhiem

Haye is marginally quicker, but in no way is he more skilled (in a boxing fundamentals sense of the word). Wlad is one of the most well-schooled boxers around at the moment, and his defence in recent fights has been exemplary. It's all well and good praying that Haye lands a big shot out of nowhere, but tell me the number of times Wlad has been hit flush and hard by any of his opponents in the last five years. I bet you'd be able to count the number on one hand. Haye's unorthodox offence might pose some problems for Wlad, but you can be sure that Wlad's jab will pose massive problems for Haye, and you know he'll be sticking it in Haye's face all night long. Wlad is tentative, true, but it's exactly this tentativeness which wins him fights and makes it so difficult for his opponents to land anything of consequence.I agree with this, Haye has a chance to beat Wlad but Wlad is a very good boxer, he's just dull as hell. it's 75/25 fight in Wlads favour. Big V on the other hand would spank Haye 99/100

16y ago

ATG_Fighter

He certainly does have a deadly right. Not sure if he is the hardest puncher pound 4 pound though

16y ago

nomadman

Yes but imo the quicker, more skillful, the guy who punches from different angles will beat the more tentative Wlad who will be wary from the first bell. Wlad panics and Haye will have him out of there in a few rounds max. Haye is marginally quicker, but in no way is he more skilled (in a boxing fundamentals sense of the word). Wlad is one of the most well-schooled boxers around at the moment, and his defence in recent fights has been exemplary. It's all well and good praying that Haye lands a big shot out of nowhere, but tell me the number of times Wlad has been hit flush and hard by any of his opponents in the last five years. I bet you'd be able to count the number on one hand. Haye's unorthodox offence might pose some problems for Wlad, but you can be sure that Wlad's jab will pose massive problems for Haye, and you know he'll be sticking it in Haye's face all night long. Wlad is tentative, true, but it's exactly this tentativeness which wins him fights and makes it so difficult for his opponents to land anything of consequence.

16y ago