David Haye v John Ruiz

True but nobody really thinks back to pre-Tua days for Ruiz. Most of his time in the public eye, from 1996-2007, was underscored by his notorious crappy style and the machinations of King.

From 1992-1995 and then later from 2008-2010 he wasn't so bad. Nobody much associates him with those periods, though. He didn't become relevant until after rebounding from getting KTFO by Tua, and had faded back to irrelevance by his stylistic new leaf turning over in the McCline eliminator.

 

Yes, the actual Haye who is 6-1 against heavyweights (including glorious wins over Tomasz Bonin and Audley Harrison) doesn't quite match up the imaginary Haye that lives in the minds of many British boxing fans and is the frequently-discussed Haye on this forum.

Horrendously overrated fighter.

 

The main thing I remember noticing last time I watch Haye-Ruiz was Jim Watt's appalling commentary .... hearing him justifying a vicious blatant rabbit punch "Ruiz was already on his way down" .... :-(

 

Very fair post :good

Along those lines, I also read an amusing comment here about Haye a few months ago that he was the undisputed p4p Hypothetical match up champion.

He is still undefeated in hypothetical matches to this day as he gets better with each month/year he doesn't fight. An amazing skill!

 

But you can't deny he blitzed out a guy in 5 that Vitali spend 12 rounds trying to put down.

The reason people don't like Haye is due to jealously because he has a life they dream of combined with him being an arrogant c which just pisses them off even more

 

Of course not, that's a very good winning performance. But Haye was being incredibly overrated long before he beat Chisora.
Vitali's performance was poor, but he's old and no one seriously believes he's the fighter he used to be.

Not me. I admire people who work hard and make a lot of money. I have full respect for what Haye has done to make himself rich. I respect the fact that he's work hard to become a tremendous athlete, he's work hard towards this from a young age.
I think he's said some dickish things in the past and made promises he can't keep, but that's all hype and it's part of the game. It's certainly made him rich and gets people interested.
Don't get jealous, get inspired. :deal

But he's overrated as a fighter by British boxing fans and British sporting media. I can't fault him for hyping himself up or having a high estimation of his abilities, but the fans and media should be a little more objective. Yes, he's good, but he's nowhere near as good as people make him out to be. Maybe if he'd stayed at cruiserweight, but not as a heavyweight. The quality of his opposition has been mediocre a best, apart from Klitschko, and his "world title" reign was pretty bad (W12 Valuev, TKO Ruiz, TKO3 Harrison) yet people talk as if he's had major achievements in the division that set him a cut above the other contenders.
He's simply overrated by many many people.

 

Brilliant post :good

Love the "Don't get jealous, get inspired" quote also.

 

Valuev was the fight through which he won the title. Ruiz he had no choice to be fight because of Don Kings terms for allowing Haye to have the Valuev in the first place. Harrison was a mismatch but the fact remains he was at the time European champion, which is no different to Vitali giving Sosnowski a fight, difference being it made Haye even more wealthy (and every other boxer in his position would of done the same)

He was a legitimate heavyweight world champion and is still in the top 5 due to the problems his speed and style give the plodders the division is full of these days

 

I'm not faulting Haye for taking those fights, I was simply pointing out that they don't prove an awful lot about his abilities a heavyweight fighter.

I don't think he was a legitimate heavyweight world champion.
Wladimir was clearly the real champion.
Valuev was a joke champion.

 

I think thats the point we really don't know how good Haye is at Heavyweight.....hasn't had enough fights to make a serious judgement.... I mean he looked very impressive against del-boy and then looked like a little girl against Wlad.