Former WBA heavyweight champion Nikolai Valuev (46-1, 34 KOs) is set for his comeback fight against unbeaten Canadian Jean-Francois Bergeron (27-0, 19 KOs) on September 29th at the EWE-Arena, in Oldenburg, Germany. Valuev, 34, lost his WBA heavyweight title against challenger Ruslan Chagaev by majority decision in April 2007, a fight in which many people felt that Valuev had done more than enough to get the victory.
In fact, it was one of the worse decisions I’d witnessed in recent memory, particulary in point of fact that the most of the smaller six-foot Chagaev’s punches landed either on Valuev’s gloves or hit him in the chest, missing his head by as much as a foot due to Chagaev’s limited reach. In training for his fight with Bergeron, Valuev has decided to cast his long time coach Manuel Gabrielian overboard for new coach Alexander Zimin.
It’s unclear what effect, if any, this will have on Valuev, who appeared to fighting effectively under his old coach. As it was, Valuev appeared to be fighting with his foot the floor getting as much as he could out of his seven-foot frame. With wins over John Ruiz, Monte Barrett, Larry Donald and Jameel McCline in recent years, Valuev proved that he wasn’t a fighter that was merely hype, something that had been leveled at him by countless critics over the years.
Bergeron,a southpaw, and also 34-years old, previously won the silver medal at the 1995 Pan American Games. Unfortunately, he was knocked out in the Atlanta Olympics by the relatively light-hitting Attila Levin. Since turning pro in 1998, Bergeron has fought exclusively soft opposition, which probably helps explain his still undefeated record.
At 6’5, he will be one of the taller heavyweights that Valuev has faced in his career. However, as Valuev showed against McCline, he doesn’t mind facing tall opponents. In fact, based on his fight with McCline, Valuev appears to punch better against them due to the fact that he’s not forced to widen his stance or punch downward, as is the case in most of his fights.