David Haye vs John Ruiz WBA World heavyweight title official on-site 30 page programme, 3rd April 2010, M.E.N. Arena, Manchester.

Condition mint

Haye W TKO 9
WBA heavyweight champion David Haye (24-1, 22 KOs) scored a ninth round TKO over 38-year-old former champ John Ruiz (44-9-1, 30 KOs) on Saturday night at the M.E.N. Arena in Manchester, England. Haye dropped Ruiz twice in round one, the first time with the right hand almost immediately, the second time with a rabbit punch. Haye was deducted a point for the rabbit punch, but Ruiz was still given a count and no time to recover from the foul. A determined Ruiz survived the round. Haye floored Ruiz again at the end of round five and again early in round six. Ruiz's corner finally threw in the towel in round nine. Time was 2:01

Price: £30

David Deron Haye (born 13 October 1980) from England & current WBA World Heavyweight Champion

Haye is a former cruiserweight champion, holding the WBA, WBC, WBO and The Ring magazine cruiserweight titles. Haye decided to vacate these titles in order to pursue his ambitions in the heavyweight division. His training camp is based in Kyrenia, in Northern Cyprus and he has worn the Northen Cyprus flag on his shorts alongside the Cross of St. George and the Union Jack in the past. He suffered his only professional loss against Carl Thompson. He has won Cruiserweight and Heavyweight World Championships.

Professional Career - Cruiserweight
Based in Bermondsey, London, England, Haye turned professional in December 2002, knocking out veteran Tony Booth in two rounds.

In 2002 he won 8 fights, 2 of which were in the USA, and won all by knockouts, the most notable being a 4th round KO of The Democratic Republic of Congo's Lolenga Mock where Haye had to come off the floor to win, and a 1st round KO of Tony Dowling where he picked up the English title.

Haye's fights were regularly seen on the BBC and his popularity began to grow in 2002, when he dispatched the 39-year-old ex-World champion "King" Arthur Williams in three rounds. However a match with 40-year-old ex-WBO champion Carl Thompson for the lightly regarded IBO belt proved disastrous. Early on Haye hit Thompson with everything in his arsenal, but late in the 5th round Thompson landed a series of punches to Haye's head. After further blows his corner threw in the towel, resulting in a TKO victory for Thompson.

Haye bounced back in December 2005, defeating Alexander Gurov for the EBU European title in just 45 seconds.

In January 2006, Haye signed a three year contract with former Lennox Lewis promoter Frank Maloney in order to further his world title ambitions. He retained his European title with defences against Lasse Johansen (TKO8), Ismail Abdoul (W12), and Giacobbe Fragomeni (TKO9).

Haye's cameo at heavyweight resulted in an impressive 1st round KO win over Polish fighter Tomasz Bonin, who at the time was ranked No.11 by the WBC and only had one loss to his name.

Cruiserweight World Titles
He challenged Jean-Marc Mormeck on 10 November 2007 for the WBA and WBC Cruiserweight titles. Haye defeated Mormeck with a TKO in the 7th round. Haye was knocked down in the 4th but later dropped Mormeck in 7th round with a hard uppercut. Mormeck beat the count, but the referee stopped the bout as Mormeck was deemed to be unfit to continue. The victory confirmed Haye's arrival as a genuine world class fighter because Mormeck was ranked number one by The Ring magazine.

This was expected to be Haye's last fight in the cruiserweight division, win or lose. Haye himself has admitted that he 'struggles to make weight' and feels that he can only box at '70 or 80 per cent' of his potential as a cruiserweight.

"We thank Frank for sacrificing Maccarinelli, but we’d feel immense guilt if we took any more free money from Sports Network. I have a hard enough time sleeping at night as it is"

David Haye on the prospect of working with Sports Network again. David Haye and Enzo Maccarinelli met in an all-British world Cruiserweight title fight in the early hours of 9 March 2008. British trade paper Boxing News produced a pullout special on the match. Widely billed as the biggest all British bout since Chris Eubank met Nigel Benn, few pundits could decide who would walk away the victor. As both fighters are massive punchers with excellent KO records a short fight was predicted. Haye won the match in the 2nd round with a stunning TKO.

Commenting on the fight and of the prospect of working with Frank Warren, Maccarinelli's promoter again, Haye said "We thank Frank for sacrificing Maccarinelli, but we’d feel immense guilt if we took any more free money from Sports Network. I have a hard enough time sleeping at night as it is."

Haye immediately announced the victory as his last fight at cruiserweight. He moved up to heavyweight and declared live on Setanta Sports, that he will retire on the year of his 31st birthday declaring that he will have 3 years of heavyweight domination. On 12 May 2008, Haye vacated the WBC cruiserweight title.

Campaign At Heavyweight
Haye has described the victory over Maccarinelli as "the final piece" in his cruiserweight jigsaw. Haye has repeatedly stated his intention to compete in the heavyweight division and emulate the success of Evander Holyfield.

Haye defeated heavyweight journeyman Monte Barrett at The O2 Arena in London on 15 November 2008, winning via TKO in the fifth Round, after knocking Barrett down in the third round.

WBC Heavyweight Champion Vitali Klitschko confirmed he would defend his title in a fight with Haye to take place on 20 June 2009, at Stamford Bridge in London. Instead, his younger brother, IBF and WBO heavyweight world champion Wladimir Klitschko agreed to fight Haye the same date in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. However on 3 June 2009, Haye pulled out of the fight citing a back injury. There was a suggestion that this fight might be rescheduled to later that summer, however Klitschko faced and beat Ruslan Chagaev on the original date that he was supposed to fight Haye for the IBF, WBO, IBO and Ring Magazine heavyweight title.

Haye then confirmed that he would meet the WBA champion Nikolay Valuev on 7 November in the Nuremberg Arena, Nuremberg, Germany which Sky billed as David and Goliath. Apparently showing no fear of his 7 foot opponent, Haye said: ""He is the ugliest thing I have ever seen. I have watched Lord of the Rings and films with strange looking people, but for a human being to look like he does is pretty shocking."

Haye beat Valuev in an reserved display of accuracy and efficiency, countering Valuev's misses and he jabbed forward and circled his much larger opponent. Haye came close to knocking down Valuev in the final round with a hard left hand, which made Valuev stumble. A close majority decision was announced after twelve rounds, with scores of 116-112 (ITA), 116-112 (USA) and 114-114 (ESP). He is the first British boxer to win a heavyweight title since Lennox Lewis, and only the fifth Brit in history to win the title after Lewis, Bob Fitzsimmons, former WBC champion Frank Bruno, Herbie Hide (WBO) and Henry Akinwande (WBO). Haye is the first and currently only boxer in the history of the sport to be seven or more stone lighter than an opponent in a World title fight and still come out victorious

On 3rd April, Haye defeated John Ruiz in his first title defence at the MEN Arena by TKO in the ninth round after knocking him down four times during the fight, only the second time Ruiz has been stopped. Haye immediately called out both Klitschko brothers, after claiming their recent challengers Eddie Chambers and Chris Arreola were a disgrace to boxing.











John “The Quiet Man" Ruiz (born January 4, 1972 in Methuen, MA), currently residing in Las Vegas. Puerto Rican-American and former two-time WBA World Heavyweight champion.

Professional Career
His professional record is 43-8-1-1, with 29 knockouts. Frustrated by years of criticism from the boxing press and fans, he retired upon his second loss of the WBA Title on April 30, 2005 (to James “Lights-Out” Toney). Ruiz un-retired in 10 days, after finding out that James Toney had tested positive for anabolic steroids. The official outcome, a unanimous-decision defeat, was changed to a no-contest; the WBA ordered that Ruiz retain the title. Ruiz then filed a lawsuit against Toney, claiming that he had damaged Ruiz's boxing career (due to Toney's use of illegal steroids before their bout).

On December 17, 2005 he lost his title for the third time — in controversial fashion, — to Nikolay Valuev. Ruiz lost a rematch for the vacant WBA Heavyweight title with Valuev on August 30th, 2008.

First Reign As WBA Champion
After Lennox Lewis defeated Evander Holyfield for the Undisputed (i.e., WBC + IBF + WBA) World Heavyweight Championship in late 1999, the WBA mysteriously ordered Lewis to defend the title against obscure Don King fighter Ruiz, their #1-ranked contender, but Lewis refused. Though he had been undefeated since a loss against David Tua in 1996, the level of competition Ruiz had been facing was suspect and the only name he had beaten was a nearly 40 year old Tony Tucker.

Ruiz and his management sued, claiming that WBA rules entitled him to a title shot. A judge agreed, but rather than face Ruiz in a bout that was seen as commercially unattractive, Lewis instead fought Michael Grant, considered to be a very worthy contender at the time having knocked out a series of recognized 'name' opponents on HBO. After learning of this, the judge decreed that upon entering the ring against Grant on April 29, 2000, Lewis would automatically forfeit the WBA Title.

Ruiz fought former champion Holyfield to fill the vacancy on August 12, 2000, losing by unanimous decision (this result made Holyfield the first to win a world heavyweight title on four separate occasions). Many observers and boxing reporters felt that the underdog Ruiz had done enough to win.

Due to this controversial decision, the WBA ordered an immediate rematch in early 2001, and Ruiz won the WBA Championship in a slightly less-close unanimous decision - controversial as Ruiz had been decked by a Holyfield body shot and rolled around on the floor holding his groin for over a minute. The replay shows that the blow was a legal bodyshot, not remotely near Ruiz's crotch, and should have been scored a KO10 victory for Holyfield.

Ruiz defended the title twice: a controversial draw in a third match against Holyfield where the press believed Holyfield to have won, and a 10th-round victory over Kirk Johnson (disqualified for repeatedly punching below the waist). Ruiz was accused in both the second Holyfield fight and the Johnson fight of faking low blows that actually seemed to be closer to his beltline than his groin. On March 1, 2003 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada, Ruiz’s first reign as champion ended—against a light heavyweight whom he outweighed by over 30 lb. He lost a unanimous decision to Roy Jones, Jr. Ruiz blamed the referee for the loss, claiming that he "did not let me fight my fight".

In defeating Ruiz, Jones joined Michael Spinks and Michael Moorer as the only light-heavyweight titlists to later win a world heavyweight title. Jones was also only the second former world middleweight champion to win a heavyweight title (the first being Bob Fitzsimmons, who beat "Gentleman" Jim Corbett on March 17, 1897).


Second Reign As WBA Champion
Roy Jones, Jr. was now a world heavyweight champion, Jones failed to meet the WBA-imposed deadline to face Vitali Klitschko, its #1 contender. The WBA meanwhile set up a bout between Klitschko and #2-ranked Hasim Rahman for an interim version of its heavyweight belt. The interim champion would subsequently fight Jones to settle the title's disputed status.

Vitali Klitschko refused contractual negotiations for the Rahman match, opposed to fighting for an illegitimate championship. The WBA then turned to David Tua, its #3 contender. While Tua initially agreed to fight Rahman, he later pulled out of the bout, too. Ruiz, whom Tua had beaten in 1996 — but as the #5 contender, was the highest-ranked fighter still interested — agreed to fight Rahman, a former WBC / IBF world heavyweight champion who had won and lost those belts to Lennox Lewis (by KO) in 2001.

On December 13, 2003, Ruiz defeated Rahman by unanimous decision, earning him the first-ever WBA Interim world Heavyweight Title. On February 20, 2004, Roy Jones, Jr. advised the WBA that he would return to the light-heavyweight division, vacating its heavyweight championship. The WBA then removed the "interim" tag from Ruiz’s championship status, declaring his victory over Rahman good enough to warrant being the official WBA world Heavyweight Champion.

On April 17, 2004, Ruiz fought the first defence of his second world title. He retained it with an eleventh-round technical knockout of Fres Oquendo at Madison Square Garden. This fight was historic in that it was the first time two Hispanics/Latinos faced each other for a world heavyweight title.

On November 13 of that same year, Ruiz retained the belt with a close unanimous-decision over Polish-American Andrzej Gołota (a.k.a., "Andrew" Golota), although he suffered two knockdowns and a one-point deduction by referee Randy Neumann. But Ruiz managed to win the complete 2nd half of the fight which was enough get the decision.

On April 30, 2005, Ruiz lost the title to James "Lights Out" Toney in Madison Square Garden. However, after Toney failed the post-match drug test (for stanozolol, an anabolic steroid), the New York Athletic Commission suspended him from boxing in the USA for 90 days, and fined him $10,000 (U.S.). The WBA banned the aging (then 36 years-old) Toney from fighting for its heavyweight title for the next two years. This resulted in Toney's win being changed to a "no contest" — basically, a nullification. Ruiz came out of retirement before it was found out that Toney would be suspended and he would be reinstated as champion.

Controversial Loss To Valuev
On December 17, 2005, Ruiz lost the WBA Championship in Berlin to 7 ft. tall, 324-lb. Russian Nikolai Valuev. The official outcome was a majority decision (scored 114-116, 113-116, and 114-114), but it was also a controversial one. Ruiz was convinced that his jab / combination-punch technique had given him a clear victory. He demanded that his promoter, Don King, set up an immediate re-match with the now-first-ever Russian world heavyweight champion. Ruiz's long-time manager, Norman Stone, declared that they would also formally petition the WBA: after all, the 10,000 German spectators booed when the decision was announced. Ruiz's camp claimed that the Germans booed because they too felt that the outcome was unjust. Wilfried Sauerland, the manager who rescued Valuev's career from obscurity 2 years earlier, angrily countered that the fans had booed because Stone's in-ring behavior had agitated them.

In September 2006 Ruiz announced that he would be managed by Wilfried Sauerland, the very same man who manages Valuev. His former manager Norman Stone retired on December 22nd, 2005, stating that the decision in the loss to Valuev was the last straw, and he would continue to support Ruiz from retirement.

The Road Back
After the loss Don King announced his intention to still promote Ruiz. King had become aware of Ruiz after his KO win over the former IBF world champion Tony Tucker in 1998.[3] Ruiz followed up the loss to Valuev with a fight against up-and-coming contender Ruslan Chagaev. In a close fight, Chagaev prevailed, taking a split decision with scores of 117-111 and 116-112 for Chagaev, and 115-114 for Ruiz. Chagaev became the mandatory challenger for a shot at Valuev, whom he defeated on April 14, 2007 to claim the heavyweight championship.

Another Comeback
Ruiz faced Otis Tisdale on 10/13/07 and ended the fight with a TKO victory in the 2nd round as referee Pete Podgorski called a halt to the bout as Tisdale went down for the third time. The bout was scheduled for 10 rounds. On March 8, 2008 Ruiz won a 12 round unanimous decision over Jameel McCline in Mexico.

Valuev-Ruiz II and III
Valuev defeated Ruiz by unanimous decision on August 30th. Scores were 114-113, 116-113, and 116-111. The result was initially declared a split decision win for Valuev. The 114-113 score by ringside judge Takeshi Shimakawa was announced in favor of Ruiz. Shimakwa alerted WBA officials after that his score was intended for Valuev. One of the scorecards had the names of the fighters in opposite order, resulting in the confusion.

The decision was once again unpopular with the live crowd as some booed the outcome, much like the first match in December 2005. After petitioning the WBA to protest against the outcome of the fight, Ruiz was made the WBA's mandatory challenger to fight the winner of Chagaev-Valuev II in 2009. As that bout was cancelled Ruiz will now fight Valuev a third time for the belt.

Legacy
Some critics consider John Ruiz to be one of the less renown Heavyweight titlists. Though he held the title twice, his championships have been cited as one reason that the WBA Heavyweight Title is not currently considered a major heavyweight championship belt.

In addition, Ruiz has been roundly criticized for his "clinch-and-grab" style, particularly in his later fights. In his fight against Fres Oquendo, Ruiz actually clinched more often (108 times) than he landed his punches (only 92), with predictable results to his popularity. He regained his WBA heavyweight title in court almost as often as he did in the ring, something that further damaged his frequent claim that he was the only legitimate heavyweight titleholder (as compared to the Klitschko brothers, Lennox Lewis, and many others), as well as the greatest active heavyweight.