WBA heavyweight champion David Haye took a huge step towards a unification fight with one of the Klitschko brothers after taking John Ruiz apart over nine one-sided rounds in Manchester on Saturday night.
Haye dropped his limited but durable opponent three times - albeit on the second occasion with an illegal blow to the back of the head for which he was deducted a point - before Ruiz's corner wisely threw in the towel.
Ruiz was Haye's mandatory challenger and expected to provide the former undisputed cruiserweight champion with a stiff examination of his credentials as a true heavyweight powerhouse.
However, Haye wasted little time in proving himself a hitter of the heaviest variety, dropping Ruiz with an awesome one-two combination just seconds into the opening round.
The Londoner had a clearly dazed Ruiz on the floor again in the opening stanza but this time after cupping Ruiz around the back of the head as the two-time WBA champion was on his way down after another thudding right hand.
Ruiz survived the round and tried to take the fight to Haye thereafter.
However, the American was repeatedly caught by massive right hands by his young and faster foe and he fell to the floor again in the fifth. Again it seemed as if Ruiz had been the recipient of a blow to the back of the head but this time the referee failed to spot the foul.
Ruiz battled on but he took a knee in the sixth before requiring the bell to come to his aid at the stanza and his corner finally decided to pull him out of the fight in the ninth after he had been rocked by a succession of devastating right hands.