Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Holyfield would take a year-long layoff, but eventually accepted an offer from WBA heavyweight Nikolai Valuev to challenge him for the title on December 20, 2008. [5] Valuev was in his second reign as WBA heavyweight champion, having defeated John Ruiz to claim the vacant title in his previous fight. As in virtually every fight he had been in ...
Valuev instead fought John Ruiz for the vacant title on 30 August 2008 and the WBA decided to make Chagaev "Champion In Recess". Valuev defeated Ruiz by unanimous decision to regain the WBA heavyweight championship, with Valuev and Chagaev set to fight no later than 26 June 2009 to determine whom the WBA regarded as their champion. [16]
Chagaev used his speed and footwork to nullify Valuev's size advantage, successfully bobbing and weaving, slipping under Valuev's jab and going back-and-forth between moving to the left and right to confuse Valuev with movement. After 12 rounds Chagaev won the fight by a majority decision with scores of 117–111, 115–113 and 114–114. [9]
However Valuev managed to rock Ruiz with a left in the eighth and edged the final round with right-left combination that wobbled the American. The two of the three judges scored the bout for Valuev 114–116 and 113–116 while the third scored it 114–114, giving Valuev a Majority Decision victory, becoming the first-ever Russian world ...
They also mandated that Valuev and number two ranked contender John Ruiz meet for the vacated title. Ruiz had also recorded back to back wins following his consecutive defeats against Valuev and Chagaev. Sauerland Events won the purse bid with an offer of $2,106,401. [4] Heading into the bout, Valuev was the 5-2 on favourite. [5]
Haye suffered a broken hand during the fight while hitting Valuev's head, saying it was like hitting a brick wall. The win made Haye the fourth Briton to win a major heavyweight title, after Bob Fitzsimmons , Lennox Lewis , and Frank Bruno , as well as only the second former cruiserweight champion to win a heavyweight title after Evander ...
Chagaev became the mandatory challenger for a shot at Nikolai Valuev, the WBA heavyweight champion at the time. Valuev was sat ringside and believed Chagaev was the rightful winner. [92] [93] At the conclusion of 2006, Chagaev was ranked No.9 heavyweight in the world by The Ring; Nikolai Valuev was ranked 8th; John Ruiz was ranked 10th. [94]
Valuev later lost a majority decision to David Haye, meaning Ruiz would now fight Haye for the WBA title, after Haye had recovered from a hand injury. When the fight took place on April 3, 2010 at the M.E.N. Arena in Manchester , Ruiz lost to Haye by TKO when his corner threw in the towel in the ninth round after suffering four knockdowns in ...