David Haye to Defend Title Against Ruiz

LAS VEGAS -- When England's David Haye traveled to Nuremberg, Germany, for his Nov. 7 matchup with 7-foot, 316-pound, Nikolay Valuev, the 218-pounder did so with more support from his own countrymen than the man who is named "The Russian Giant" for his status as the largest champion in the history of boxing.

And when Haye broke his right hand in the second round of an eventual, 12-round majority decision, it was the deafening cheers of his fans that lifted him on the way to dethroning Valuev for the WBA championship.

"We all know that the British boxing fans are among the best boxing fans in the world. They're exciting, they like to travel, and they're just great sports fans," said Richard Shaefer of Golden Boy Promotions, who is handling Haye's affairs in the United States.

"And they showed that again. They realized the significance of a British fighter fighting for the heavyweight championship of the world. And they came there, and they supported him, and they were rewarded by the fact that David was able to capture the title."

In victory, Haye (23-1, 21 knockouts) became only the sixth Brit ever to earn a heavyweight crown and only the second-ever former cruiserweight (200 pounds) to do so.

Bob Fitzimmons, Herbie Hide, Lennox Lewis, Frank Bruno and Henry Akinwande also were English champions, and Evander Holyfield, a former cruiserweight, dethroned Buster Douglas for that honor.

On Saturday morning, Haye fielded questions from reporters concerning his future in the heavyweight division, which could include bouts with WBC champ Vitali Klitschko, WBO and IBF titlist Wladimir Klitschko, or even rising former cruiserweight champion Tomasz Adamek.

First, however, there is the prospect of facing mandatory challenger John Ruiz, a former world champion who is looking to earn that title a third time. Haye could face Ruiz in March.

"There is a mandatory obligation against John Ruiz," Shaefer said. "I don't know if March is going to be the date, but it might be, depending on David's hand, which, as you saw, is injured. So it's first things first, and I don't really want to think too far ahead of that, because John Ruiz is a very experienced fighter and a former world champion.

"It would be a very big fight in England, probably in London. It would be a big homecoming for David Haye, defending his world title for the first time. That's really the plan. Obviously, I know that the fights everyone would like to see is against one of the Klitschkos, and, after that, hopefully against the other one. We'll have to see when those fights happen, and how they can happen."

As he spoke to reporters, Haye wore a white wrapping on his right hand as a result of what Schaefer called "a hairline bone fracture," suffered against Valuev, "but there is no surgery necessary, so it will basically heal on its own."

Haye recounted the moments early in his bout with Valuev (50-2, 34 KOs).

"A lot of the stuff that I had trained to do, I found it very tough to get off on him because of his sheer size. Not because of his technical abilities, but because he was so big," said Haye, who is nicknamed "The Hayemaker."

"And when I did hit him, with my trademark haymaker in the second round, when most people would have fallen and been unconscious, it broke my hand," said Haye. "I had slipped his jab and threw a perfect right hand, which was something that I had worked on time and time again. And I threw it with as much power as possible, hoping he would hit the deck, but it didn't work out that way."

Haye said he then had to rely on boxing skills, displaying abilities that some didn't believe the self-professed knockout artist was capable of using.

"To not only fight against the largest heavyweight of all time, and to go pretty much to his back yard and his home town, where he's fought before and he's got support, I think that shows my intent. And to do that in Germany, you've got to pretty much put on a boxing clinic," said Haye.

"Evander Holyfield himself said that he didn't think that I would be good enough to beat Valuev because of my lack of experience against big guys. He didn't know how I would react to taking the punches, or if the guy leaned on me. He didn't think I had the experience to get through it, but I think that proved a few people wrong," said Haye, who hurt Valuev badly in the 12th round.

"I showed that I'm an athlete, and that I punch very, very hard. All that you have to do is look at Valuev's prior fights. You can see that he gets hit by some hard shots and he seems to shake them off," said Haye. "Yet the first time he's ever been hurt, and wobbled, was by my left hook. And my left hook is not really even my punch. I also think that my defense also has been underestimated over the years."

Another fight Haye would consider is one against the Polish-born Adamek, former IBF cruiserweight champion and winner of his last eight bouts -- six of them by knockout -- who will fight in his second straight heavyweight bout against an opponent to be determined on Feb. 6 at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.

A resident of nearby Jersey City, Adamek (39-1, 27 knockouts) also is said to be considering matchups against either Bernard Hopkins or Roy Jones at the cruiserweight limit of 200 pounds.

Adamek's only defeat came in February 2007, when he lost a decision to current light heavyweight champion, champion Chad Dawson (28-0, 17 KOs). Adamek had taken a 31-0 record into his bout with Dawson, who dethroned him as WBC 175-pound titlist.

On Oct. 24, Adamek scored a fifth-round knockout over former three-time heavyweight title contender Andrew Golota despite being out-weighed 257-215 by the larger challenger.

Adamek has called out Haye for a matchup, but Haye said that he will not look beyond Ruiz.

"The toughest fight of my life is going to be against John Ruiz, next. And I won't look past John Ruiz. I made that mistake earlier on in my career in the fight that I lost when I looked beyond Carl Thompson. That won't happen again," said Haye. "I'll make sure that I make a statement against Ruiz. It's been a long time since John Ruiz has been knocked out by David Tua back in the day."

Over time, Haye said he wants to conquer the Klitschkos, and, in the end, be appreciated as a fighter with excellent overall skills.

"Everyone just sees me as a brawler and a puncher," Haye said. "They look at my record and see that I've gotten lots of people out early. They didn't feel that I could adjust and make the right movements with my feet, thinking that I have lazy legs or whatever.

"But I've showed that I can adjust and that I can do things that people don't expect me to do. But over time, I think that people will start warming to what I can do. I can change my gameplan to suit any fighter because I'm an athlete, and I live the life in and out of the ring."