By Lee Collier

Manchester City town hall witnessed the final press conference before WBA heavyweight champion David Haye faces off against challenger and former two time world heavyweight champion John Ruiz which BoxingScene.com was present at. Both fighters where true to form with Haye promising a spectacular knock out whereas the fighter known as “The Quietman” was more reflective on what he needed to do.

Haye knows he is in for a tough fight off 38 year old Ruiz who may be on a last chance but feels the power he possesses will be enough to make him the first man to stop Ruiz since David Tua performed the feat back in 1996.

“I always my plan to knock out my opponents and John Ruiz is a tough guy and its no secret he is in the best shape of his life and he’s been pushing himself to the limit,” stated Haye. 

“As the heavyweight champion everyone will come in stronger than ever before to try and rip my title away from me and they say it’s harder to hold on to a title than to win it but I know I have made the sacrifices needed to get myself in the best possible condition and I’m expecting a tough gruelling fight.

“I’ve trained for 12 hard rounds or less, I want to make it less and I don’t believe there is anybody in the world on my day who can take the punishment I am willing to dish out for 12 rounds,” revealed Haye. 

“They may be able to take three or four rounds but sooner or later it is going to sicken them.  People don’t realise how hard I am to catch clean and when someone is having no success but I’m having success their confidence drops and it’s always people’s plan to get me into the later rounds and break me down but the amount of damage that is accumulated on the way means very few of them see the final bell.”

Haye will face a more experienced operator and knows that he can ill afford to allow Ruiz to dictate the fight but feels that preparing for the best John Ruiz will give him the advantage he requires.

“You never let anyone get into the fight, once they get a foothold in the fight it makes it awkward for you so my plan is to go out there and establish what I’m doing and make sure I’m having the success and he isn’t,” opined Haye. 

“That will be his gameplan too but I’m confident the experience I have, even though it’s probably half the experience he has will be good enough to negate any of his tactics and I believe I know what he is going to do and I have an answer for that.

“I have trained long and hard for this, people may have thought I was going to underestimate John Ruiz when this fight was announced.  When the fight was three months away people were saying John Ruiz isn’t a big puncher, he isn’t this but myself and Adam knew when we signed to fight Valuev that we would face Ruiz next and we knew it was a tough fight so we focused on it and have covered all angles.”

The trust Haye has in his trainer, Adam Booth, has not waned and believes that the amount of research Booth has done will give them the perfect gameplan for the awkward challenger.

“Adam was studying John Ruiz before the fight was announced,” revealed a confident Haye.  “Adam knows about his style and what makes him effective.  We think he is effective and why fighters struggle is because of a few things he does during the fight, there are two or three things that people haven’t picked up on but we have picked up on them and as soon as he tries them on me he is going to come unstuck.”

The challenger is no stranger to British soil, having fought six times in the UK back in the 1990’s winning all six contests.  Ruiz is happy to back in a place that he was successful in and is hoping when he leaves he is still unbeaten in England.

“I appreciate he is confident but first of all I want to thank the people of Manchester for the great hospitality, but also to the people of England,” said a polite Ruiz.  “I have been here many times and it’s a great experience for me and my team and I’d like to keep my winning record going here and I’m facing David Haye for my seventh fight in England.  It’s a great opportunity for me and everyone around me and come Saturday it will be a great fight and I’m looking forward to it.”

Ruiz has been his usual calm self, not replying or trash talk which is usual in the build-up of David Haye fights.

“I have heard it before, I have had many people come and tell me they are going to knock me out and put me six feet under so I’ve heard them all,” explained Ruiz.  “There is no need for it, boxing is a sport where you go out and fight, after the talking’s done you go out and do the fighting in the ring.”