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Until yesterday, Russian heavyweight Nickolai Valuev was bearing down on the great Rocky Marciano’s longstanding unbeaten record but today the 7 foot tall, 319 pound behemoth is out one WBA title and the new owner of a loss on his previously spotless record.
The change on Valuev’s record was forced upon him last night at the Porsche Arena in Stuttgart, Germany by opponent Ruslan Chagaev, who managed to negate the giant’s massive advantages in height, reach and weight.
A southpaw form Uzbekistan, Chagaev, 23-0 (17), gave Valuev hell all night long with his mobility and ability to get under the big man’s jab where Chagaev’s much shorter arms could go to work.
The 28 year old Chagaev had worked his way up the heavyweight ranks since turning pro in 1997 and the heavily decorated former amateur had gotten past John Ruiz and Michael Sprott in his last two outings.
Valuev controlled the action early, using the long, pike-like jab that had mastered 46 opponents to date, but Chagaev made the Russian work without absorbing very much punishment.
By the fourth, Chagaev had studied his rival enough to begin a close range assault that saw him nail Valuev several times point blank with full blooded left hands.
From that point on, the two combatants engaged in a series of firefights that saw the action sweep back and forth but Chagaev was the more active and had better success, particularly in the eleventh round.
The final frame saw Valuev try to make up lost ground but it was too little, too late in the eyes of ringside officials, who found Chagaev the winner by majority decision, 117-111, 115-113 and 114-114.
Ruslan Chagaev becomes the new WBA Heavyweight Champion while Nickolai Valuev drops to 46-1 (34).
