I wrote this article about this fight, thought I'd post it here just in case there is somebody who actually cares about this one Revenge of the Giant: Valuev – Chagaev II<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o> <o></o> German boxing promoter Team Sauerland will take a trip to north. On 30<SUP>th</SUP> of May Finland will see its second world championship event ever and the first one in almost fifty years as Ruslan Chagaev and Nikolai Valuev face each other for the WBA heavyweight title. The card goes under the name of Revenge of the Giant and it will be held on Hartwall Arena, <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1lace w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Helsinki</st1:City></st1lace>, which has a capacity of 13,000+ viewers. <o></o> <o></o> The main event has drawn much publicity in Finnish sports media, which very rarely reports about international boxing events. Fight posters have been spread all around <st1:City w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Helsinki</st1lace></st1:City> and Valuev’s intimidating face has become familiar to many. Valuev, clearly, is the draw of the fight in spectators’ view. This became very apparent as the fighters had a press conference in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Finland</st1lace></st1:country-region> few weeks back. An army of about forty journalists and photographers followed Valuev outside, while Chagaev walked alone. Most sports fans do not know the situation in boxing politics, so this is seen by them as the fight for the actual heavyweight championship. Most spectators will also have never seen Valuev fight before. Both things are extremely good from promoter’s view. <o></o> <o></o> The main event of the evening will be for the ‘undisputed WBA championship of the world’, if that makes any sense. Ruslan Chagaev was the champion, but since he was unable to defend his title because of his injuries, WBA named him as the ‘champion in recess’ and created a new title, won by Valuev. Now they both hold their titles simultaneously as ‘co-champions’ until facing each other. <o></o> <o></o> Nikolay Valuev has come a long way in his career, from a side-kick circus freak to a legitimate top-10 contender. His first official professional fight dates back to 1993. His career took a turn for more serious only in 2004 as he scored some solid victories on European level. He won his first world title in 2005 as he took the WBA crown from John Ruiz via narrow decision victory. Valuev then defended the belt successfully three times before losing it to Chagaev in their first encounter. With logic only WBA can fully understand, Valuev then became champ again in 2008, again by narrowly outpointing John Ruiz. Valuev has defended his new version of the title once, by edging veteran Evander Holyfield in last December. <o></o> <o></o> Valuev has actually gathered a pretty formidable list of victories among today’s heavyweights. He is 50-1 with 34 <st1lace w:st="on">KOs</st1lace> and holds wins over names such as Ruiz, Holyfield, Barret, Lyakhovich, McCline and Donald among others. It has to be noted, though, that more than once Valuev has had luck with the judges. <o></o> <o></o> Valuev with his size and looks is a good product to sell for crowds, but chances are that people who come to this night to see world class heavyweight boxing won’t do the same again. Especially in recent years Valuev has become almost painful to watch. He plods forwards and sends out a lazy if extremely long jab, trying to control fights with that. He rarely throws a right hand and even more seldom he lands with it. To his credit this strategy has brought him pretty good results so far, and even if some of his victories have been questionable, he hasn’t been clearly beaten by anybody apart from Chagaev either, which is an achievement in itself. His reach, body strength, experience and seemingly sturdy chin are his best attributes in the ring. <o></o> <o></o> Ruslan Chagaev has gone through with a much more traditional career. He was an amateur world champion in heavyweight and defeated among others the legendary Felix Savon before seriously turning pro in 2001 (Chagaev had two pro fights back in 1997 but he returned back to amateurs after that). He has gathered a list of 25-0 with one technical draw and 17 opponents stopped. Apart from Valuev the best names of his record are John Ruiz and Vladimir Virchis whom he outpointed in 2006. Chagaev was out of the ring because of injuries for over a year. He returned this January with a technical decision win over little-known Carl David Drumond. <o></o> <o></o> Among the heavyweights of today Chagaev is known as a quick, well-moving and accurate puncher with solid all-around skills. He, however, is an example of a fighter who doesn’t have many glaring weaknesses but doesn’t do anything particularly well either. Anyway these assets combined with his unblemished record have made him almost universally recognized number three of the division behind only Klitschko brothers. <o></o> <o></o> If the old saying of boxing which states that a fighter is as good as his last fight is true, then neither of the title holders is very good at all. There is a good chance that the title fight will turn out to be mind-numbingly boring with both fighters heading to a decision win through extremely careful approach. Hopefully though at least one of the fighters feels the urgency to open up somewhere during the middle rounds, which might lead to an entertaining ending. From fan’s perspective, that might be the best outcome possible.<o></o> Personally I can’t see this fight going much differently from their first encounter. Even though Chagaev had a layoff and did not look very sharp last time out, his movement and shorter punches should carry him to a clear decision win. Valuev was befuddled by 46-year-old Evander Holyfield’s footwork in December and to have a chance here he should be much more active with his approach. If Valuev can throw his jab enough, he could stay in the fight and keep it close, but I do not see it being enough to actually win.<o></o> <o></o> In other fights of the evening, former WBO title holder and top challenger Lamon Brewster, 35, continues his slow comeback in an eight-rounder against Finnish national heavyweight champion Juho Haapoja. For Brewster this obviously is a stay-busy fight in his hopes to get one more title chance, while for Haapoja, it represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet a world-class opponent. <o></o> <o></o> Haapoja, 28, is a late starter in boxing circles and so far he has surprised everybody by actually doing pretty well. He had a relatively short amateur career and as a pro he has achieved nine wins against two defeats and a draw with seven knockouts. Haapoja is 5’11½ and a bit pudgy <st1:metricconverter w:st="on" ProductID="230 lbs">230 lbs</st1:metricconverter>. He is an honest, hard-working guy who throws a lot of punches and does not give up trying. Despite his good KO % he is not much of a puncher though and not very quick either. In his most notable fight so far he faced and lost by KO to Dennis Bakhtov, whom European boxing fans might remember from his losing effort against Sinan Samil Sam in EBU title fight some years back. <o></o> <o></o> From a Finnish standpoint this fight is extremely intriguing and Haapoja as a likeable personality will be loudly supported by the home crowd. In truth, however, every round that the Finn survives can be considered as a small victory for him. In his last fight Brewster easily outpointed Michael Sprott, an erratic Brit who still is a big name in European circles, which goes on to show the vast gap in talent that these fighters have. Brewster by knockout in mid rounds seems like the most likely outcome here. <o></o> <o></o> On the undercard there is also Australian Kali Meehan facing a professional KO victim Cerrone Fox. Meehan is the first challenger for WBA title (though I am not sure which one of them). Meehan’s only claims for fame are a solid victory over Davarryl Williamson and a close loss against Lamon Brewster some years back. This bout is obviously another stay-busy fight for him on a way to a proposed title fight.
Also the undercard includes unbeaten Finnish heavyweight hopeful Robert Helenius (7-0) who will have the biggest test of his short career against <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Britain</st1lace></st1:country-region>’s Scott Gammer (18-3). Helenius won silver in amateur’s European championships in 2006 and Finnish boxing fans had big expectations for his pro career. That is why his first year as a pro, which has brought him seven wins but only three knockouts in them has drawn some critics from the field. In his last two fights it has seemed though that the big-sized young Finn has found his confidence and punching power back and it will be interesting to see how his talent matches up with an experienced pro.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o> <o> </o> The ten-bout card also includes women’s welterweight world title fight and two EU title bouts. One interesting name to note from the undercard is Russian Denis Shafikov. The unbeaten, technically very sound Russian prospect has gathered 19 straight victories and defeated the former world champ Raul Hoarcio Balbi earlier. Stay tuned for him.<o></o>
His first fights were very unimpressive, but as an amateur he defeated a whole bunch of succesful guys so he might get things going. He is a young fellow who now seems to take his training seriously
Fightbeat has a homepage? :: I thought this was a write-up for a finnish site. Now that I think about it, I guess it would make sense to write in finnish then. ::
