Valuev Vs. Holyfield

[Maple Leaf]

From supersport.co

Valuev has 43kg advantage

20 December 2008 (07:33)

Nikolai Valuev © Action Images
A 46-year-old man weighing 97.2 kg will try to beat a 141kg, 36-year-old for the WBA heavyweight title in Zurich on Saturday night.
And the "youngster" is also 30 cm taller than the challenger.

But Evander Holyfield insisted at Friday's weigh-in he will beat Nikolai Valuev to win a fifth "world" title.

Valuev is the heaviest and tallest champion in history. At 2.13 metres he presents a high target.

The Russian has been beaten only once in 51 fights. That was when he lost his WBA title to Ruslan Chagaev last year, before he regained his belt by beating John Ruiz in August.

Holyfield has beaten the likes of Mike Tyson, James Douglas, Lennox Lewis and Riddick Bowe. He has a record of 42 wins, 27 knock-outs, two draws and nine defeats.

He beat Douglas to win his first world title in 1990 and 18 years later insists he will be a champion for the fifth time at Zurich's Hallenstadion on Saturday.

"Yeah, he's bigger and heavier than me, but a fight is a fight," Holyfield said.

"Everybody is talking about my age, but we'll see on Saturday night. I don't think age will be a problem."

Holyfield knows Valuev will not hand out a Cristmas gift in front of a sellout crowd of 12 500.

"I am not into the whole wishing thing," said Holyfield when asked what he wanted for Christmas. "I will win on Saturday and then I want to enjoy Christmas."

The manager of heavyweight champions Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko says the fight between Valuev and Holyfield is a disaster for boxing.

Bernd Boente said, "Valuev's opponents are growing weaker and weaker. The fight against Holyfield can only be a farce.

"If Valuev fights such people, one automatically knows what his attitude is to boxing someone such as Wladimir."

Holyfield will receive the equivalent of nearly R1 million for the fight, but after displaying an impressive physique in training, the former champ says his sole motivation is winning another world title.

More than a 100 million people are expected to watch the fight op television in over 100 countries around the globe.

The winner of Saturday night's fight will have to face Chagaev in a mandatory defence after the Uzbekistan fighter was forced to relinquish his title through injury this year.

 

[Maple Leaf]

Every time a white heavyweight champion fights a black fighter the caste inspired media takes notice. White fighters are not really judged on how well they do against other white fighters -no matter how good the other white may be. No, white fighters are judged against black fighters. To be recognized, a white fighter has to knock out a stack of blacks to be regarded as worth his salt. This is why the heavyweight division is said to have "no credibility" in the eyes of the caste inspired media because of the lack of black competition. A loss by Valuev to Holyfield would be exactly what the media is looking for to prove their point that the current heavyweight division is made up of poor competition. The media will repeat, and repeat, and repeat: "See what we told you -if a 46 year old can walk in and beat one of these world champions from Europe what does that tell you!" Make no mistake, this is a MUST win for Valuev, whites, and boxing in general.

 

[whiteathlete33]

Had this fight taken place ten years ago imagine what the media would be saying. They would be saying Holyfield would destroy Valuev.

 

[Van_Slyke_CF]

whiteathlete: In his 'roided-up prime, Holyfield was a better fighter than Valuev. I don't know what he takes now to build himself up before fights that is not detectable.

I look forward to a Valuev victory, but, on the other hand, it's hard to get too excited about guys like Valuev and Ibragimov giving Holyfield chances to make millions more to pay off his child support debts.

To my mind, there are two real heavyweight champions: Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko.

 

[Maple Leaf]

It really should come as no surprise that an enormous seven foot man like Valuev with some skill -not too much- and a solid chin and stamina has become a world champion. Traditionally in boxing one or two men stand out in the heavyweight division for awhile, and they, or one of them, becomes the men or man to beat. Valuev is not that man. Valuev has not fought, and may never fight, the current men at the top, the Klitschko brothers. Now if Valuev was the one and only man at the top and all others had to beat him I would say the division lacked quality participants. But currently I would say the Klitschkos (2) , Chagaev, Dimitrenko, Povetkin, and possibly Thompson would beat him. Valuev is a top ten guy but six out of the top ten would probably beat him. Seems like normal times to me.