Hi all, I registered on Eastside a few years back and I've read many posts since then. I've never posted here before, mainly because I was always a bit 'over-awed' by some people's knowledge of boxing. My own interest in boxing started when I was 13 and a British TV channel used to show the highlights of American bouts at 3am on a Monday night and I'd watch the TV under the duvet as I marvelled at a 17 year old Mike Tyson. Anyways, this was my take on the Haye v Ruiz fight: I posted the following on some random site straight after the fight: 'Great performance by Haye. Some of the commentary was hyberbolic as you'd expect from Sky ('fastest Heavyweight since Ali'?), but Haye looked good and sent another message out to the Heavyweight division. God only knows how Ruiz got up from the first salvo, it was reminiscent of of the 1-2 Lennox Lewis delivered to Mike Tyson that left him looking dazed, confused and pathetic in equal measure (and I'm a huge Tyson fan). The Hayemaker is no All-Time-Great (yet) and his style leaves him looking amateurish at times, but the rest of him that looks professional does enough to get the job done and with some gusto. Bring on the Klitschko's. He may lose to either one of them, but it would still be a great spectacle and I doubt that at least one of them would have climbed from the canvas after that first 1-2 (yes, I'm thinking of you Wlad).' To add to that, I've read the round by round summary of the fight on here and a lot of people are saying he could never beat either of the Klitschko's fighting the same fight as he did tonight. I have no doubt that he'd struggle against either Klit employing the same style, but Haye has shown enough versatility in his last few fights and employing completely contrasting syles, to show that he isn't a one trick pony. The boy can punch, but he's also learnt when to take a breather or go all-out defensive. As for the initial knockdown, he maybe could have blasted Ruiz out of there, but I think the Carl Thompson bout taught him never to put all his eggs in one basket. Once he saw Ruiz get up, I think he decided to choose his moments wisely for the rest of the fight.
