This fight tomorrow night in Germany for the WBA Heavyweight title looks
interesting. Nicolay Valuev, "The Beast from the East", makes Peter Crouch look like a titch, he's a fucking monster.
This from the Times...
Freak or unique: how will Valuev measure up?By Ron Lewis
He is seven feet tall, weighs 24st and is used to being written off as a freak sideshow act. But the moment of truth has arrived for the man known as The Beast from the East. On the weekend that the remake of King Kong hits the big screens, boxing’s own monster is making his bid to rule the world.
Nicolay Valuev looks as if he has walked straight off the set of a 1950s Hollywood B movie. Tomorrow, at the Max Schmeling Halle in Berlin, the Russian challenges John Ruiz for the WBA heavyweight title. It is a remarkable transformation for a boxer who spent his early career being dragged around the world for people to gape at.
Ruiz has suffered the indignity of losing the title to two former middleweight champions, Roy Jones Jr and James Toney, although he was handed back the title this year after Toney failed a drugs test. If Ruiz struggles against smaller men, it will be interesting to see how he copes against a bigger one — Valuev will have a 10in height advantage and a 6st weight advantage.
In the 1990s, Valuev, 32, went through a host of promoters and managers, knocking out low-grade opposition in small halls in all corners of the world. He kept winning, but never got a break because nobody believed in him.
“Promoters just wanted to make money off him,” Wilfried Sauerland, who has promoted Valuev for the past two years, said. “So they put him in with the cheapest possible opposition. Nico would knock them out and after a couple of fights he would become disillusioned and move on to the next promoter.”
After making his debut in Berlin in 1993, Valuev boxed in Russia, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the United States, Ukraine, Belarus, the Czech Republic and South Korea.
He boxed twice in London in 1996, stopping Neil Kirkwood in two rounds at Battersea Town Hall and Darren Fearn in one round at York Hall, Bethnal Green. By remarkable coincidence, another boxer trying to make a name for himself on that York Hall undercard was Ruiz.
“It was not so easy in the beginning of my career,” Valuev said. “A lot of people thought my fighting was a PR activity only. I never lost a fight, but the experts and reporters needed a lot of time to see me as a serious athlete. Because I boxed in so many countries a reporter asked me before the last fight if I could imagine to box in Antarctica. I said that’s a great idea.”
The big change came when he joined Sauerland in Germany. “We put him with a new trainer and he trained with our team of boxers and straight away we saw a lot of improvement,” Sauerland said. “His co-ordination was much better, his skills improved. People first came to see him because of his height, but they then came because they saw he could box. He is now getting interest because he has faced reputable opposition.”
The switch helped Valuev to believe, too. “In the last two years I had a good development in technique and tactics, and now, I think, the boxing fans and experts see me as a fighter who can be world champion soon,” he said.
Slowly, Sauerland has raised the standard of opposition. He defeated Paolo Vidoz, now the European champion, in October 2004 and then faced Gerald Nobles, an American who had been unbeaten in 24 bouts. It was a piece of dream matchmaking for Valuev because Nobles, despite being a genuine heavyweight, was 5ft 11in.
“As soon as he saw Nico, his face went grey,” Sauerland said. “He just wanted to get out of there. Early on, he started rolling about on the floor claiming he was injured — then he started hitting Nico low . . . not just low, but really low.” Nobles was eventually disqualified in the fourth round for repeated low punches.
This year, Valuev has boxed three times, defeating Attila Levin, a useful American-based Swede, Clifford Etienne and Larry Donald, who had beaten Evander Holyfield in his previous bout, in a world-title eliminator.
Don King, the sport’s greatest showman, has now got on board, too. King controls the heavyweight division and, while he has been Ruiz’s promoter for years, there is no doubt that King would see more potential in the giant Russian than the spoiling Ruiz.
“I think it will be a 50-50 fight,” Sauerland said. “I think a lot will depend on how Nico copes with losing the early rounds — he tends to get nervous if he falls behind. But boxing someone of his size for 12 rounds is very hard. It’s not just the height, it’s because he’s so heavy.”
Valuev believes that this is his moment of destiny. “I always believed I would be world champion. From my first fight I believed I would make this dream real,” he said. “If you are not convinced of yourself and your possibilities, it makes no sense to go into the ring.Ruiz is a good fighter, but I studied him exactly on video and my coach and me worked out a tactic especially for him.
“I fight for the title, of course, but I fight for my family, my friends, for the people who supported me and believed in me, and for my country, too.
I want to be the first heavyweight world champion from Russia and I give all that is possible to become that.”
SIZE MATTERS# The ring will be a regulation size, 20sq ft, with four ropes, the top one of which is 54in above the canvas. Boxers can request that the ropes are tightened for safety, but not loosened.
# Instead of stepping through the ropes, Valuev steps over the top rope when he enters the ring.
# The referee will be Stanley Christodoulou, 59, from South Africa, who has been elected to the International Boxing Hall Of Fame. At more than 6ft, he is one of the tallest leading referees. Christodoulou has been in charge of many big contests, including Marvin Hagler against Roberto Duran in 1983, Barry McGuigan’s WBA featherweight title win over Eusebio Pedroza in 1985 and was the only judge to vote for Lennox Lewis in his controversial drawn first bout against Evander Holyfield.
# As well as being the tallest, Valuev will break the record for the heaviest world title contestant. The record is 19st 4lb, shared by Primo Carnera, champion in the 1930s, and Danny Williams, when he challenged Vitali Klitschko for the WBC title last year.
# With Ruiz likely to weigh in at nearly 18st, the bout will also smash the record of Klitschko and Williams for heaviest combined weight for a world title bout, which stood at 37st 2lb.
# The growing size of heavyweights has led to several changes in limits. The cruiserweight division was introduced at 13st 8lb in 1979 to plug the gaps between heavyweights and light-heavyweights (12st 7lb). The cruiserweight limit was raised last year to 14st 4lb.
# The bout will be held at the Max Schmeling Halle, named in honour of Germany’s greatest boxer and only world heavyweight champion who died this year, aged 99.
Dunno if it's on anywhere, checked Sky/Eurosport and that. I've still got the old satellite dish which gets all the German channels on, could be on there...
