Ruslan Chagaev

Ruslan Chagaev
Statistics
Real name	Ruslan Chagaev
Nickname(s)	White Tyson
Rated at	Heavyweight
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Nationality	Uzbekistan
Born	October 19, 1978 (1978-10-19) Andijan, Uzbek SSR, Soviet Union
Stance	Southpaw
Boxing record
Total fights	31
Wins	28
Wins by KO	17
Losses	2
Draws	1
No contests	0

Medal record
Competitor for Uzbekistan
Men’s Boxing
World Amateur Championships
Gold	Belfast 2001	Super Heavyweight

Ruslan Chagaev (Uzbek: Ruslan Chagayev; Tatar Cyrillic: Руслан Шамил улы Чагаев, Latin: Ruslan Şamil ulı Çağaev; Russian: Руслан Шамилович Чагаев) born October 19, 1978 in Andijan, Uzbek SSR, Soviet Union) is an Uzbekistani former WBA heavyweight boxing champion of Tatar ethnicity. As an amateur boxer, he has won the Asian and World Championships in the heavyweight (81–91 kg) category.

Chagaev won the WBA title in 2007 with a majority decision victory over Nikolai Valuev, but was made "champion in recess" after he sustained an injury. He relinquished the title after failing to have a rematch with Valuev. In his next fight, Chagaev lost by stoppage to IBF, WBO and IBO Champion Wladimir Klitschko.

Amateur career

Chagaev, a two-time world amateur champion, defeated legendary Cuban boxer Félix Savón to capture the gold medal at the 1997 World Championships but was then stripped of his crown for having two professional fights prior to the championships. Chagaev was reinstated as an amateur the following year when the fights were declared exhibitions.

• 1995 Won the gold medal at the Asian Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan at Heavyweight.
• 1996 Represented Uzbekistan at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, United States at Heavyweight.
  • lost to Luan Krasniqi (Germany) PTS (4–12)
• 1996 Won a bronze medal at the Junior World Championships in Havanna, Cuba at Heavyweight.
  • def. Marat Tuchazyan (Armenia) RSC-3
  • lost to Yurkis Sterlin (Cuba) PTS (11–14)
• 1997 Won the gold medal (later stripped) at the 1997 World Amateur Boxing Championships in Budapest, Hungary at Heavyweight.
  • def. Jonie Amour Tancongco (Belarus) PTS (15–7)
  • def. Giacobbe Fragomeni (Italy) PTS (18–4)
  • def. Mike Hanke (boxer) (Germany) PTS (12–7)
  • def. Felix Savon (Cuba) PTS (14–4)
• 1998 Won the gold medal at the 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok, Thailand at Heavyweight.
  • def. Muzaffar Iqbal Mirza (Pakistan) RSC-1
• 1999 International Boxing Cup
  • def. Felix Savon (Cuba) PTS (7–2)
• 1999 Represented Uzbekistan at the 1999 World Amateur Boxing Championships in Houston, Texas, United States at Heavyweight.
  • def. Garth Da Silva (New Zealand) PTS
  • def. David Turner (Australia) RSC-1
  • lost to Felix Savon (Cuba) PTS (1–9)
• 1999 Asian Championships – gold medal
• 2000 Represented Uzbekistan at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia at Heavyweight.
  • def. Alexander Yatsenko (Ukraine) PTS (15–2)
  • lost to Vladimer Chanturia (Georgia) PTS (12–18)
• 2001 Won the gold medal at the 2001 World Amateur Boxing Championships in Belfast, Northern Ireland at Super heavyweight.
  • def. Csaba Kurtucz (Hungary) RTD-2
  • def. Vitali Boot (Germany) RSCO-3
  • def. Alexei Mazikin (Ukraine) RTD-2

Chagaev vs Savón

Chagaev is notable for being the only foreign fighter to defeat Félix Savón twice in the international competitions. First at the age of 19, he beat the then 2-time Olympic champion 14–4 to capture the 1997 World Heavyweight title. In 1999, he defeated him again 7–2 in the final of an international boxing cup in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Savon was able to avenge defeats in the 1999 World Championship, beating Chagaev 9–1.

Professional career

Heavyweight

Ruslan Chagaev (center) inside the ring with his coach Michael Timm (right) challenging Rob Calloway (left). January 7, 2006).

Having fought twice in 1997, Chagaev returned to amateur boxing. He turned pro fully in 2001, with the only flaw on his early record coming October 5, 2002 bout against Rob Calloway in Detroit, Michigan, United States. At the end of third round, the fight was stopped due to Calloway having a wound caused by a headbutt. Michigan boxing rule mandated that the fight be called a Technical Draw (TD) since the bout ended by an accidental foul. Usually four rounds are needed to go to the score cards for decision.

Chagaev slowly but steadily climbed up the heavyweight ranks, first avenging the no-contest with a brutal second round knockout of Calloway, then beating undefeated Ukrainian prospect Vladimir Virchis in a close and intense punchfest, and slowly took apart prominent British boxer Michael Sprott.

John Ruiz

On November 18, 2006, he fought the former WBA champion John Ruiz, and prevailed in a close contest. He took a split decision with scores of 117–111 and 116–112 for Chagaev, and 115–114 for Ruiz. Chagaev became the mandatory challenger for a shot at Nikolai Valuev, the WBA heavyweight champion at the time. Chagaev defeated Valuev on April 14, 2007 by a majority decision (117–111, 115–113 and 114–114) to win the title.

On June 26, 2007, it was announced that Ruslan Chagaev would partake in a heavyweight unification bout with WBO heavyweight champion Sultan Ibragimov. The fight was due to take place in Moscow on October 13, 2007 and would have been the first heavyweight unification bout since 1999; however, Chagaev had to drop out of the fight after contracting hepatitis B. At that point, it was not clear whether he would have been able to compete at all, with WBA considering a championship tournament for Chagaev's crown. After Ibragimov defended his crown against Evander Holyfield, however, it was announced that Chagaev was able to recover.

Chagaev defended his WBA heavyweight title against Matt Skelton on January 19, 2008 by unanimous decision.

His next mandatory defense was to be a rematch on July 5, 2008 with Nikolai Valuev, who defeated former WBO champion Sergei Liakhovich by unanimous decision to earn the right. However, the fight had to be cancelled after Chagaev suffered a complete tear of an Achilles tendon during his final sparring session in preparation for the defense, causing Chagaev's second postponement of the match. The WBA elected to make Chagaev "Champion In Recess" due to the injury that Chagaev sustained and necessary recovery time and mandated that top-contenders Valuev and John Ruiz meet for the vacated title. By beating Ruiz, Valuev also became champion on August 30, 2008.

Chagaev returned from injury on February 7, 2009 with a victory over the then-unbeaten Costa Rican, Carl Davis Drumond to retain his title. The bout was decided by a controversial technical decision after Chagaev sustained a cut from an unintentional clash of heads. Chagaev and Nikolai Valuev were supposed to fight no later than June 26, 2009 to determine who the WBA regarded as their champion. They were scheduled to fight on 30 May 2009 in Helsinki, Finland at the Hartwall Arena, but Chagaev failed a Finnish medical test, allegedly due to hepatitis. On July 24, 2009, when the WBA published their Official Ratings as of June 2009, Chagaev was no longer the "Champion In Recess" but the #1 challenger instead.

Wladimir Klitschko

Chagaev was defeated for the first time in his professional career in a bout with Wladimir Klitschko on 20 June 2009 with a 9th round ref stoppage. Klitschko retained his WBO, IBO & IBF crowns and won the vacant Ring magazine title. The fight was held at the Veltins Arena in Gelsenkirchen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany, and Klitschko's WBO, IBO & IBF heavyweight titles were at stake.

The WBA title that he shared with Nikolai Valuev was not at stake, as the WBA confirmed Valuev was to be the WBA Champion.

WBA Title Eliminator

Chagaev fought Kali Meehan (35–3; 29 KO) on May 22, 2010, in a WBA Heavyweight Title Eliminator at the Stadthalle in Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. The former WBA champion won the bout by unanimous decision with the scores of 117–111, 117–112 and 118–110.

Professional boxing record

28 Wins (17 knockouts), 1 Loss, 1 Draw
Result	Record	Opponent	Type	Rounds	Date	Location	Notes
Win	28-2-1	Kertson Manswell	UD	8	28/01/2011	Rotherbaum, Hamburg, Germany
Loss	27-2-1	Aleksander Povetkin	UD	12	27/08/2011	Erfurt, Thüringen, Germany	For vacant WBA Heavyweight title.
Win	27-1-1	Travis Walker	UD	8	19/11/2010	Universum Gym, Wandsbek, Hamburg, Germany
Win	26-1-1	Kali Meehan	UD	12 (12)	2010-05-22	Rostock, Germany	WBA Heavyweight Title Eliminator.
Loss	25-1-1	Wladimir Klitschko	RTD	9 (12), 3:00	2009-06-20	Gelsenkirchen, Germany	For IBF, WBO, and IBO Heavyweight Titles; Chagaev's WBA title Was Not on the line.
Win	25-0-1	Carl Davis Drumond	TD	6 (12), 3:00	2009-02-07	Rostock, Germany	Defended WBA World Heavyweight Title; Fight was stopped due to an accidental headbutt.
Win	24-0-1	Matt Skelton	UD	12 (12)	2008-01-19	Düsseldorf, Germany	Defended WBA World Heavyweight Title.
Win	23-0-1	Nikolay Valuev	MD	12 (12)	2007-04-14	Stuttgart, Germany	Won WBA World Heavyweight Title. Valuev's first loss.
Win	22-0-1	John Ruiz	SD	12 (12)	2006-11-18	Düsseldorf, Germany	WBA Heavyweight Title Eliminator.
Win	21-0-1	Michael Sprott	TKO	8 (12), 2:54	2006-07-15	Hamburg, Germany	Defended WBA Inter-Cont. HW Title; Won Vacant WBO Asia Pacific HW Title.
Win	20-0-1	Volodymyr Vyrchys	MD	12 (12)	2006-03-11	Hamburg, Germany	Won WBO and WBA Inter-Cont. HW Titles.
Win	19-0-1	Rob Calloway	KO	2 (10), 2:10	2006-01-07	Munich, Germany
Win	18-0-1	Mark Krence	KO	5 (8), 1:28	2005-10-22	Halle, Germany
Win	17-0-1	Jucimar Francisco Hipolito	TKO	1 (8), 0:50	2005-09-28	Hamburg, Germany
Win	16-0-1	Sherman Williams	UD	8 (8)	2005-03-26	Riesa, Germany
Win	15-0-1	Tommy Connelly	TKO	2 (8), 1:51	2004-12-14	Sölden, Austria
Win	14-0-1	Asmir Vojnovic	TKO	4 (10), 0:45	2004-11-16	Cuxhaven, Germany
Win	13-0-1	Willie Williams	KO	3 (8), 2:25	2004-10-26	Rostock, Germany
Win	12-0-1	Garing Lane	KO	5 (8), 1:46	2004-07-31	Stuttgart, Germany
Win	11-0-1	Sedreck Fields	KO	2 (8), 2:45	2004-06-22	Telfs, Austria	Rematch.
Win	10-0-1	Wade Lewis	KO	1 (6), 2:33	2004-05-18	Lübeck, Germany
Win	9-0-1	Alexey Varakin	KO	2 (6), ?:??	2004-03-30	Aachen, Germany
Win	8-0-1	Sedreck Fields	UD	6	2004-02-17	Lübeck, Germany
Win	7-0-1	Daniel Frank	KO	2 (6), 0:54	2003-11-18	Wandsbek, Germany
Win	6-0-1	Zakeem Graham	TKO	3 (10), 2:26	2003-05-22	Yonkers, USA
Draw	5-0-1	Rob Calloway	TD	3 (10), 2:41	2002-10-05	Detroit, USA
Win	5–0	Chris Isaac	UD	8	2002-05-11	Biloxi, USA
Win	4–0	Val Smith	KO	1 (4), 2:26	2002-01-14	Las Vegas, USA
Win	3–0	Everett Martin	TKO	4 (4), ?	2001-09-21	Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Win	2–0	Brian Jones	KO	2 (4), 1:10	1997-09-03	Rosemont, USA
Win	1–0	Donnie Penelton	KO	1 (4), 2:30	1997-08-21	Aurora, USA	Chagaev's professional debut.

Ethnicity

Chagaev's parents, Shamil and Zamira Chagaev, are from the Tatar village of Kalda (located in today's Baryshsky District of Ulyanovsk Oblast, Russia), who moved to Uzbekistan in the 1950s.

See also

• List of current world boxing champions
• List of heavyweight boxing champions
• List of left-handed boxers

External links

• Official site of Ruslan Chagaev
• Ruslan Chagaev Fight-by-Fight Career Record
• News and Pictures of Ruslan Chagaev
• Professional boxing record for Ruslan Chagaev from BoxRec
• Ministry of Cultural and Sports Affairs of Uzbekistan

Sporting positions
Preceded by Nikolai Valuev	WBA Heavyweight Champion April 14, 2007 – July 18, 2008 Status changed	Vacant Title next held by Nikolai Valuev
New title	WBA Heavyweight Champion Champion in Recess July 18, 2008 – July 24, 2009 Stripped	Title terminated

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