Nikolai Valuev

Nikolai Valuev
Born	Nikolai Sergeyevich Valuev (1973-08-21) August 21, 1973 Leningrad, Soviet Union
Nationality	Russia
Statistics
Weight(s)	Heavyweight
Height	7 ft 0 in (2.13 m)
Reach	85 in (2.16 m)
Stance	Orthodox
Boxing record
Total fights	52
Wins	50
Wins by KO	34
Losses	1
Draws	0
No contests	1

Nikolai Sergeyevich Valuev (Russian: Никола́й Серге́евич Валу́ев) (born August 21, 1973) is the reigning two-time WBA heavyweight boxing champion, a title he shares with boxer Ruslan Chagaev. Valuev, who has also started an acting career, stands 7 feet (2.13 m) tall and is the tallest and heaviest boxing champion.

Biography

Valuev was born on August 21, 1973, in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg). He is of Russian descent, but he also had a Tatar grandfather.

He wooed his wife, Galya, with poetry that he composed himself. He has two young children, a son and a daughter. He hunts deer, ducks and wild boar and goes fishing with his son. In his professional boxing career Valuev has been defeated only once - by Ruslan Chagaev.

Valuev is a Russian Orthodox Christian. During his youth he played water polo and basketball, and was also a discus thrower.

Boxing career

After an amateur career where he had a record of 23-0, with 16 knockouts, he became a professional fighter in 1993. His debut bout was against American John Morton, and Valuev beat him by knockout in the second round. In 1999 he captured the Russian heavyweight title and in 2000 he won a Pan-Asian title.

Valuev propelled himself into a position to fight for a world title with victories over Bob Mirovic, Otis Tisdale, Paolo Vidoz, Gerald Nobles, Attila Levin, and Clifford Etienne.

1st reign as WBA champion

On December 17, 2005, Valuev squared off with WBA heavyweight champion John Ruiz, and won a twelve-round majority-decision. Two judges favored Valuev by scores of 116-114 and 116-113, while the third saw the fight as a 114-114 draw — enough to give Valuev the title. This victory came after narrowly defeating Larry Donald on points in the title elimination bout.

On Saturday June 3, 2006, in his first defence of the WBA Heavyweight Championship, Nikolai Valuev (then 44-0, 33 KOs) defeated challenger Owen Beck (25-3, 18 KOs) by a third-round technical knockout in Hannover, Germany.

On Saturday October 7, 2006, Valuev fought Monte Barrett and defeated him with a technical knockout in the 11th round, for Valuev's 45th win. Barrett was knocked down twice in the 8th and once in the 11th round, but managed to get up. After being knocked down for the final time in the eleventh round, his trainer James Ali Basheer jumped into the ring to stop the fight.

On January 20, 2007, Valuev fought Jameel McCline (38-6-3, 23 KO's) in St. Jakobshalle, Basel, Switzerland. Valuev won the match, successfully defending his title, after McCline was not able to continue the bout after injuring his knee when throwing a punch near the end of the 3rd round.

Loss of WBA title to Chagaev

In the tournament to determine who would next challenge Valuev for his title, Ruslan Chagaev from Uzbekistan beat John Ruiz, who lost his championship to Valuev in 2005. The title defense was held on April 14, 2007. Chagaev defeated Valuev by a majority decision (117-111, 115-113 and 114-114).

Valuev changed trainers, transitioning from Manuel Gabrielian to Alexander Zimin, who coached the old Soviet Union amateur boxing team.

On September 29, 2007, Valuev won against Jean-Francois Bergeron in Oldenburg, Germany, by a 12-round unanimous decision (118-111, 118-111 and 118-111).

Regains WBA championship

In a 16 February 2008 title eliminator, Valuev defeated former titleholder Sergei Liakhovich from Belarus, winning every round at the Nuremberg Arena in Germany. The victory earned Valuev the right to face Chagaev for the WBA title again, the only man who has defeated him in his boxing career. He was scheduled to face Chagaev for his WBA title on July 5, 2008, but Chagaev pulled out with an injury. Valuev instead fought John Ruiz for the vacant title on August 30, 2008 and the WBA decided to make Chagaev "Champion In Recess". Valuev defeated Ruiz by unanimous decision to regain the WBA heavyweight championship and, by doing so, must now face Chagaev no later than June 26, 2009..

Valuev´s first title defense of his second reign as WBA Champíon was against the 46-year old, four-time heavyweight champion of the world, Evander Holyfield, on December 20, 2008, in Switzerland. Valuev won on points, in what many experts consider one of the worst decisions ever in a heavyweight title fight, when two of three referees voted for his close victory, one referee voted for a draw. The bout is being investigated by the WBA. It said, in a statement, "The Championship Committee have ordered a panel of judges to review the tape of the fight between Valuev and Holyfield." There has not yet been given any date for the decision; with WBA stating the decision will be made in "the following weeks."

Since Ruslan Chagaev returned from his period in recess with victory over Carl Davis Drumond on February 7, 2009 to retain his title, Chagaev and Nikolai Valuev are now joint holders of the WBA belt. Valuev had previously been "Active Champion" during the period Chagaev was regarded as "Champion In Recess". Their scheduled rematch on May 30, 2009 was cancelled due to Chagaev's viral infection.

Acting career

Valuev's first role in a movie was a cameo appearance in the German film 7 Zwerge – Der Wald ist nicht genug in 2006.

In 2008 Valuev played the main role in the film Stonehead by Philip Yankovskiy, playing an ex-boxer who lost his memory. That film took the main prize at the movie festival "Window to Europe".

After the success of Stonehead, it was announced Valuev is being filmed in two new films at the same time.

Outside the ring

In January 2006 Valuev was accused of assault by a security guard at the Spartak Ice Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia. The guard, Yuri Sergeyev, claims Valuev's wife parked her car inappropriately, and a request to move the car led to an argument. Sergeyev alleges Valuev then appeared and assaulted him. Valuev however said his wife was crying and that he only grabbed the guard by the collar, adding "If I were to have actually hit him, as some people are saying, the consequences for this person would have been more serious. I think I acted as any normal man in my place would have done." No criminal investigation was ever launched by local police. Sergeyev was admitted to City Hospital No 3 where he was diagnosed as suffering from "closed craniocerebral injury, thorax and cerebral contusion." He threatened to launch a private civil suit against Valuev. He won the suit, and Valuev has now been ordered to pay 130,000 rubles (5,400 USD) in damages.

Valuev has written a book in Russian called My 12 Rounds, with the help of prominent Russian journalist Konstantin Osipov. The book discusses his life in general and his boxing career in particular. For that book, Valuev received an award from the government of Saint Petersburg.

According to Valuev, he eats three kilos of meat daily.

External links

• Boxing record for Nikolai Valuev from BoxRec (registration required)
• Valuev interview
• Valuev interview
• Template:De icon Personal page from promoter
• Template:Ru icon Official personal site Template:En icon
• Boxing-Encyclopedia

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