Carl Froch is backing David Haye to blow John Ruiz away in Manchester on Saturday night.

The undefeated WBC super-middleweight champion expects the Hayemaker to retain his WBA world heavyweight title, live on Sky Box Office.

Froch, currently preparing to take on Mikkel Kessler at the end of April, expects Haye to have little trouble and is even expecting him to become the first man in 55 fights to stop Ruiz inside the distance.

"He's a great fighter, very fast, very skilful, very tough - but people have got question marks about his chin; he's been put down a couple of times as an amateur and a professional," he said.

"Will he beat Ruiz? Of course he will.

"I think he will walk through Ruiz and then hopefully he'll get a shot at a Klitschko - and I'll give you a prediction on the Klitschko fight when it gets made."

Many people are touting this as the first real test of Haye's heavyweight credentials after blowout wins over Tomasz Bonin and Monte Barrett and the hit-and-run success over Nikolai Valuev in Germany.

Ruiz is known for his rugged style and is happier working on the inside, but Froch believes that despite the doubts about his chin, the WBA champion will have the strength as well as the skills to send a statement out.

"He's too fast, too skilful and if he needs to, David can stand there - he's proven now he can hold a shot," he said.

"He's very fit, I think he's put in the extra work he needed to put in to make him a tougher, more durable fighter. He's developed as a professional, he's big and strong at heavyweight.

"He's not big, big but he's by no means the smallest heavyweight champion of the world we've ever had."