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Booth warns Haye of Ruiz threat

David Haye will put his title on the line against John Ruiz © Getty Images

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Adam Booth has declared that John Ruiz is the most dangerous opponent of David Haye's career.

Haye beat the giant Nikolay Valuev to claim a version of the heavyweight world championship, which he will put on the line against American Ruiz on April 3 in Manchester.

Ruiz has eight defeats on his record, including two controversial losses to Valuev, but Haye's trainer Booth feels the American is extremely dangerous.

"We felt that when we signed the Valuev fight and won the Valuev fight, that the hardest fight of his career would be John Ruiz," Booth told Sky Sports News. "We have no doubts about that. Maybe Vitali Klitschko would be harder, but John Ruiz because of his style makes it the hardest fight of David's career.

"This threat is real, because of his style of making fighters look bad and bringing them into range and trading with them. He knows David likes to box long, which is why this is a hard fight for David."

Booth has turned back time in Haye's training camp in a bid to get his fighter accustomed to what to expect from Ruiz, and he is demanding that the champion comes out all guns blazing on fight night.

"If you let John Ruiz gain some momentum in the first few rounds, you're in for a hard hard night. You're better off treating the first two rounds like Tommy Hearns...put it on him. Put it on him, hurt him, and put it on him. After that, settle down because then it becomes a long boxing match.

"We like to apply science to David's training and see what works in the past and with this fight being a war, we have gone back to old-school techniques. There is a lot of nice kit like a treadmill and running machine but we have a rope, a sledgehammer, ring and gloves because we have to strip it down to basics and get David used to being an old-school fighter."

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