Thaindian News

London, Apr 2 (ANI): WBA heavyweight champion David Haye has said that he will hide away for a year if he loses his title to American challenger John Ruiz.

Haye is desperate not to suffer the same fate as Frank Bruno did in 1996 when he lost his crown to Mike Tyson in his first title defence fight.

The two-weight world champion said he was gutted for Bruno back then as a teenage fan.

Haye admits that losing to Ruiz on Saturday at Manchester’s MEN Arena after claiming the title from Nikolai Valuev would be even worse than when he suffered his only pro defeat to Carl Thompson in 2004.

“Winning the title and then losing it to John Ruiz would be devastating. I’d be devastated by that. It would feel a lot worse than I did when I lost to Carl Thompson.

“Then I had the excuse of being a novice. This time I have no excuse. After the Carl Thompson defeat, I went away for a couple of weeks. This one would be so much worse, I’d probably want to duck out for a year. Just get away from everything,” The Mjirror quoted Haye, as syaing.

“Every champion knows the high of winning can quickly turn to the opposite feeling if things go wrong in the first defence. I remember Frank Bruno winning the title then losing it.

“He went from such a high when he won to getting blasted by Mike Tyson. I remember being on a real downer afterwards - and that was just me as a fan,” Haye said.

Haye knows his dreams of beating the Klitschko brothers to unify the heavyweight titles rest on this first defence against Ruiz.

Ruiz, who is bidding to join Muhammad Ali and Evander Holyfield in the exclusive club of three-time world heavyweight champs, has been in training in Las Vegas for three months. (ANI)