Nikolai Valuev
Nikolai Valuev | |
|---|---|
| Born | Nikolai Sergejevitsch Valuev August 21, 1973 |
| Nationality |  Russian |
| Other names | The Russian Giant; The Beast From the East |
| Statistics | |
| Weight(s) | Heavyweight |
| Stance | Orthodox |
| Boxing record | |
| Total fights | 48 |
| Wins | 46 |
| Wins by KO | 34 |
| Losses | 1 |
| Draws | 0 |
| No contests | 1 |
Nikolai Valuev (Template:Lang-ru; born August 21, 1973), was the first Russian professional heavyweight boxing champion and the former holder of the WBA title between December 17, 2005 and April 15, 2007. His alias used to be "The Beast from the East" but he now prefers to be styled "The Russian Giant".
Valuev is the tallest and heaviest recognized champion to this day, standing at 215 cm (about 7 feet) tall[1] and weighing in at 145-150 kg (320-330 lb).
In 1993 Valuev became a professional boxer and he won the WBA title December 17 2005 with a points decision over American John Ruiz. He successfully defended the title 3 June 2006 against Owen Beck, October 8 2006 against Monte Barrett and 20 January 2007 against Jameel McCline. His record then stood at perfect 46 wins and no defeats, and he was only four victories away of surpassing Rocky Marciano's record. In a fight on April 14, 2007, he lost his title to Ruslan Chagaev by majority decision.
Biography
Valuev was born in Leningrad, now Saint Petersburg in a Russian-Tatar family. He has a wife, Galina, a five-year-old son, and a daughter. During his youth he played water polo and basketball, and was also a discus thrower.
Boxing career
In 1993, Nikolai became a professional boxer and had his debut match against American John Morton, beating him by knockout in the fourth round. In 1999 he captured the Russian Heavyweight title and in 2000 he won a Pan-Asian title. His amateur career record was of 23-0-0-0, with 16 knockouts, all before the fourth round.
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.
In 2005 Valuev accidentaly killed his sparring partner after they head butted each other. No arrests were made.=== Title bout vs. Ruiz === On December 17, 2005, Valuev squared off with WBA heavyweight champion John Ruiz, and won a controversial twelve-round majority-decision. This victory came after narrowly defeating Larry Donald on points in the title elimination bout. These two fights were seen as controversial, being quite close, and showing Valuev's vulnerability to opponents who are capable of getting inside, while also able to avoid his trademark slow knockout punches.
In the last days of December 2005, however, it was revealed that he had been fighting Ruiz one-handed, due to an injury of his right hand. This had been carefully concealed by Valuev's camp, in fear of losing the chance of fighting for a world title. 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.[2]
Title defense vs. Beck
On Saturday 3 June 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 TKO in Hannover, Germany. Before this fight, the small sized Beck had only fought one contender, where he was knocked out by Monte Barrett in 9 rounds.
Title defense vs. Barrett
On Saturday 7 October 2006, Valuev fought Monte Barrett and defeated him with a technical knockout in the 11th round, for his (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.
Barrett had been inactive for over a year and had lost his last fight, a comprehensive points defeat to Hasim Rahman.
Title defense vs. McCline
On January 20th, 2007, Valuev fought Jameel McCline (38-6-3, 23 KO’s) in St. Jakob-Halle, 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 almost at the bell finishing the 3rd round.
Failed mandatory title defense vs. 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).
Car parking incident
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 had 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.[3] 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.[4]
Trivia
- Valuev was the heaviest and tallest heavyweight champion in history.
- Since 2000, Valuev has been trained by Armenian coach Manuel Gabrielyan.
- Valuev recently wrote a book in Russian called "My Rounds", with the help of a prominent Russian journalist Konstantin Osipov. The book discusses his life in general and his boxing career in particular.
- Nikolai Valuev eats three kilos of meat daily, according to Pravda.ru
References
See also
External links
- Fight-by-fight career record, from boxrec.com
- Fight-by-bight career record, from boxing.about.com
- Valuev interview, and comparison to Rocky Marciano
- Valuev interview
- Template:De icon Personal page from promoter
- Template:Ru icon Official personal site