David Haye will make the first defense of his WBA world heavyweight against John Ruiz in Manchester on April 3.
The 29-year-old British fighter, also a former world cruiserweight champion, won the heavyweight crown from Russia’s Nikolai Valuev in November in Germany.
Haye will now face Ruiz, the WBA’s No. 1 contender and former champion, at Manchester’s MEN Arena.
The 38-year-old American fighter didn’t show up at Tuesday’s news conference to announce the fight.
“We paid for his first class tickets over here, a great hotel and tried to accommodate him as best as possible,” Haye said. “He didn’t get on the flight. I don’t know what his reason is.”
Ruiz said in a TV interview that he was still in training in Las Vegas and couldn’t make the long trip.
“I apologize for not being there,” he said. “It’s an important fight in my career. I have been there [England] six times and it worked out good for me and I’m looking forward to going back.”
Haye has known since he beat Valuev on Nov. 7 in Nuremberg that he would have to fight Ruiz. He predicted on Tuesday he would become only the second fighter in 55 contests to knock the durable challenger out.
“I will not only beat him but beat him spectacularly and knock him out,” Haye said. “I’m looking forward to getting back to what I do best — to throwing my trademark ‘Hayemakers.’ Ruiz is a come-forward fighter so I aim to get at him, break him down, and take him out in good style.”
A powerful puncher but with a shaky defense, Haye believes his attacking style will be too much for the experienced Ruiz. The American has fought some of the biggest names in the heavyweight division including three fights with Evander Holyfield, recording one win, one loss and a draw. Haye will be wary of his punching power.
“John Ruiz managed to knock down Evander Holyfield not long after Lennox Lewis had 24 rounds to try to do that and he was not able to knock him down,” Haye said. “Mike Tyson couldn’t knock Holyfield down but Ruiz could. He’s got some power there and, if I leave my chin hanging out, I could come unstuck.”
Haye won a majority decision over Valuev by staying out of reach of the huge Russian’s sporadic punches in Nuremberg on Nov. 7. He hopes to be on the offensive against the unspectacular Ruiz, whose style is to wear down his opponents.
“Everyone knows I had to go to Germany to take the title away from Nikolai Valuev,” Haye said. “Now it’s time to showcase my skills again in front of the great British public.”
The British fighter described Ruiz as a boring personality whose boxing style was “a cure for insomnia.” Ruiz countered by saying Haye’s fight with Valuev was even more boring.
“That’s like throwing rocks in a glass house when he’s living in one,” Ruiz said. “In his last fight with Valuev, how many punches did he throw, 10 a round? How is that calling me boring?”
Ruiz said he would try to maneuver Haye into the corners and then throw punches.
“David Haye is a quick guy and moves to escape a lot of punches,” he said. “That’s my main focus, to virtually stay on top of him. I will bring the fight to him and make him fight my fight.”
“It has to be close and personal. He loves to move. That’s his main weapon. I have to corner him,” Ruiz said.
Haye’s goal eventually is to unify the titles by beating the Klitschko brothers, Vitali and Wladimir, who hold the WBC, IBF and WBO titles between them.
Haye has won 23 of his 24 fights, 21 by knockout. Ruiz, who held and lost the WBA title twice, has won 44 of his 54 contests with eight defeats, one draw and one no contest. Two of his defeats were to Valuev, and he was also beaten by Roy Jones Jr.
Seven of Ruiz’s losses were on points but he was knocked out in the first round by David Tua in March 1996.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier