Oscar De La Hoya has told newly crowned WBA heavyweight champion David Haye that he should make his mandatory defense against Puerto Rico´s John Ruiz in Las Vegas.
Haye has said he would love to make his first defense of the title in London, but speaking last week, De La Hoya stated;
´´When David is going to fight anybody it is going to be an event, so we have to establish him in Las Vegas. Fight Cris Arreola or one of the top guys and get the American public to know him better, then ultimately fight the Klitschko´s.“
Ring legend De La Hoya, a ten time world champion is six different weight classes is founder of Golden Boy Promotions, who represent David Haye. He went on;
´´A Klitschko fight in Vegas is a global event. If you want to make a global event, a mega, mega fight, you have to build it. David Haye is not going anywhere; he is going to be champion for a long, long time. We don’t want to make it too soon, or wait to long. Maybe early 2011 or late 2010, depending how active David wants to be. If you build it they will come – just like Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams.“
De La Hoya used to of his former opponents of examples of the kind of ring legacies he wants to build with new champion Haye.
´´What Manny Pacquiao brings to the Philippines, what Julio César Chávez brought to Mexico, David Haye can do for England. He can really create global excitement. A heavyweight champion who has charisma, who is good looking but ultimately can fight. He creates excitement. He can get boxing back to where it was with Sugar Ray Leonard. He can bring the masses over here or to Madison Square Garden, just like Ricky Hatton has done, just like Frank Bruno did. David Haye can surpass that because he is the heavyweight champion of the world and that means a lot.“
De La Hoya also insisted that he had the word of the WBA that they would not dilute the value of Haye´s title by sanctioning an interim title fight between former champion Ruslan Chagaev, and Australian Kali Meehan, contrary to what rival promoter Don King had stated earlier in the week.
´´We have complete confidence that the WBA will keep their word and not sanction an interim heavyweight world title bout,” said De la Hoya.
´´They have assured us that David will remain the only WBA heavyweight world Champion, a title which he looks forward to proudly defending for the first time in the early part of 2010.“
Haye himself says he has been ´´blown away“ by the amount of attention he has received during time he has spent in the US recently.
´´I was not expecting a tenth of the attention I have got,” Haye said. ´´It used to be just boxing fans that knew me, now it’s everyone. I didn’t think at any stage it would get like this. Even when I’ve got a baseball cap pulled down and a scarf, I get noticed. I’m getting a bit of what Oscar’s had for his entire career. I’ve never had old women ask me for my autograph before.“
Haye was ringside for the recent Pacquiao v Cotto fight, and later went night clubbing with Floyd Mayweather JR, amongst others.
´´My win captured the public’s imagination. People who didn’t know anything about boxing saw the image of Valuev and me next to each other and didn’t understand that that was fair, but wanted to see what happened because the little guy was saying he was going to smash the big guy. It intrigued everybody.“
And the new WBA heavyweight King isn’t particularly worried that his defensive performance against Valuev will be a turn off for the American viewing public.
´´I had to do what I had to do to win that particular fight,“ said Haye.
´´He was difficult to look good against. My feet and reflexes were a lot faster and I wasn’t ready to give that advantage up. If I was to hold my feet and exchange with him, he would have had a field day. In the whole 12 rounds we had two clinches.“
Haye v Ruiz odds; Haye1/4, Ruiz 11/4 bet365
