We catch up with big Danny Watts, the one-time Nikolai Valuev double, still playing a central role in David Haye's camp.
Danny and the champion of the world
As soon as David Haye been crowned world heavyweight champion in Nuremberg last November he was hoisted high in the air by a man almost as big as Nikolai Valuev.
That man was Danny Watts, who had spent the previous two months masquerading as the Russian monster.
The 6ft 7in two-time ABA champion had been called into the camp for sparring, his size they closest thing they could find to the biggest world champion boxing has ever seen.
But while that joyous moment in the ring ushered in a new era in Haye's life, Watts was not sure whether it signalled a return to his full-time job as a scaffolder.
He knew John Ruiz - who had moved aside to let Haye take on Valuev - would be next and he knew that when it came to sparring, his size might well rule him out of a second stint in the ring with the new WBA champion.
But he too soon had something to celebrate.
"Well I didn't go back to scaffolding, fortunately enough!" he said when we met again four months later in the same under-the-arches gym in London.
"After the Valuev fight they offered me a full-time job which is very varied to say the least. I'm not actually sparring this time because obviously Ruiz is a lot smaller than Valuev was, so I'm a lot bigger than him.
"I did think, when the fight was signed, about losing a couple of inches and walking round like this (he crouches down)!
"But the one good thing is I haven't had any of David's punches to take this time!"
Awards
Watts still dons the bodybag in training as Haye hones his punches for his first defence and just as last time, he pretty much does anything else required.
His business card actually says 'David Haye's right-hand man'. He is still responsible for the Nando's runs and has to make sure his boss is where he has to be on time and that his clothes are washed. And if the heavyweight champion of the world should need a minder, Danny does that too.
The closest he will get to putting up scaffolding again is setting out the chairs for the interviews that will take up much of his mate's afternoon.
Life for Danny Watts could not be further away from the building sites of South London.
"I do have to pinch myself when we're on a private jet going to Munich or when we're at the Comedy Awards or the children's charity awards," he admits.
"We went to Senegal after the last fight, just for the weekend if you please. We went to Vegas for the Manny Pacquiao-Miguel Cotto fight.
"Sometimes when you're doing things like that, it does take some getting used to - but there's still the day-to-day running of things, which is the same."
The day-to-day has though, as the Ruiz fight approaches, taken on a new dimension. While the opponent in their sights may have been scaled down, the bar has been raised in and out of the ring.
As we are speaking a Turkish TV crew - and what looks life half the station - turn up to the media day at Hayemaker HQ.
The boxing writers are already huddled round Haye and several more camera crews gather to get a few choice words from the man many are touting as the saviour of the heavyweight division.
Big Danny casually casts a cautionary eye over the latest arrivals and even from the other end of the gym, he looms large enough that they know to wait their turn. It is crowd control at a glance, and from a distance.
Minority
Watts, although a big presence in every sense of the word, is happy to stay out of the way.
His involvement with Haye has, he says, finally extinguished that burning desire to take centre stage in the ring himself and resume a pro career that ended all too early at 10-2 back in 2002.
Now he is in the wings, watching his mate wallow in the limelight that comes with being heavyweight champion of the world. And no-one is better placed to realise the difference it has made to Haye and his tight-nit team.
"I said before when we were walking down the road before the Valuev fight, maybe one in a couple of hundred people would recognise us and come up to us," he recalls.
"And that figure went up as the fight got closer. But now? Now if you don't know David, you're in the minority."
If you try and get in the world champion's face, you're in big Danny's Watts' domain.
And as Ruiz will find out for himself on April 3, you do not want to be on the receiving end of Haye's right hand.
