Valuev Defeats Bergeron

Former World Boxing Association champion Nikolay Valuev (47-1, 34 KOs) won a much harder than expected uanimous decision over previously undefeated Canadian Jean-Francois Bergeron (27-1, 19 KOs) tonight at the EWE-Arena, Oldenburg, in Niedersachsen, Germany. Valuev, 34, struggled often in the early rounds, as the 6″5′ southpaw Bergeron landed powerful left hands that rocked Valuev on a couple of occasions.

However, Bergeron appeared to fade badly in the latter part of the fight, in which Valuev took charge and was able to land his big right hand repeatedly to win the championship rounds. The final judges’ scores were 118-111, 117-111, 118-111, awarding the decision to Valuev. The win enable Valuev to keep moving forward towards another possible title shot in the future against Ruslan Chagaev, who Valuev lost a controversial split decision to in April 2007.

In the first half of the fight, Bergeron did well to keep the fight in the middle of the ring, keeping the bigger Valuev from forcing him to the ropes where he often mauls his smaller opponents. Bergeron used his faster hands to land excellent combinations to the head of Valuev as he came forward on the attack.

In the 2nd half of the fight, Bergeron began lose to quickly run out of steam as Valuev’s pressure appeared to get to him. Though Bergeron continued to pour out shots, they were much weaker than before, and he had to pay the price by absorbing wicked counter shots on many of his attempts.