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England's David Haye pulled off a major upset last night at Arena Verischerung in Nuremberg, Germany, taking the WBA heavyweight title from Nicolai Valuev via majority decision.
It wasn't pretty or particularly entertaining but Haye delivered the kind of mature performance many thought him incapable of beforehand, simply outboxing the massive Russian in every round.
Much smaller and lighter than the 7'0, 316 pound champion, Haye proved to be nearly impossible for Valuev to hit and the former cruiserweight titlist used his quicker hands to counter well.
In the last round, Haye almost delivered upon his promise to KO Valuev, shaking the St. Petersburg giant with two full blooded left hooks but couldn't improve upon his work.
After 12 frames were completed, Haye walked off with a 114-114, 116-112, 116-112 majority decision verdict to annex the WBA belt.
The Londoner improves to 23-1 (21) and will almost certainly resume his campaign to face both IBF/WBO/IBO champ Wladimir Klitschko and brother Vitali Klitschko, the reigning WBC champ.
Valuev loses for just the second time in his career, falling to 50-2 (34).
The undercard saw ex-WBA heavyweight titlist John Ruiz, 44-8-1 (3), win a chance to challenge Haye in 2010 by stopping Adnan Serin, 19-11-1 (7), in the seventh.
Former WBO heavyweight king Sergey Lyakhovic, 24-3 (15), came back from losses to Valuev and Shannon Briggs to stop veteran Jeremy Bates, 22-17-1 (18), in the first.
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