BOXING: David Haye's dream of retiring as the undisputed
heavyweight champion this year is alive and well after he finally signed to fight Wladimir Klitschko this summer.
In only his fourth
heavyweight fight, Haye makes his first title defence at Manchester's MEN Arena against an American aiming to join Muhammad Ali and Evander Holyfield as the only men to become three-time world
heavyweight champions.
Ruiz is in great shape and Booth believes only Vitali Klitschko presents a similar challenge in the
heavyweight division.
Haye won the WBA
heavyweight title by defeating Russian giant Nikolay Valuev in November and faces the first defence of his title against American John Ruiz next month.
The former undisputed cruiserweight champion has had only one top-level
heavyweight contest, beating Monte Barrett by stoppage a year ago, and after a bid to dethrone Wladimir Klitschko in the summer fell through due to injury, tries his hand against 7ft 2in Russian Valuev in Germany.
Haye has been dubbed the "saviour" of the
heavyweight division by many in the American boxing media and he thinks that the Klitschko brothers are starting to panic.
Wladimir would like to face the 28-year-old but likens him to Hide, Britain's two-time WBO
heavyweight champion who ultimately proved too small to survive among the bigger men.
He said: "Forget the Khans, forget everyone else, boxing is only as good as the
heavyweight division.
A better option for those who think the Hayemaker will blast through the big men may be to take Ladbrokes' 6-1 for him to be undisputed world
heavyweight champion by the end of 2010.
British
heavyweight star Danny Williams, who challenges Vitali Klitschko for his WBC world
heavyweight title next month in Las Vegas, has also re-signed with Warren.
Newly-crowned WBA
heavyweight champion Roy Jones has played down the chances of a unification match with Britain's WBC title holder Lennox Lewis.
And Patterson was a small
heavyweight who was beaten twice by Sonny Liston.