Valuev vs. Ruiz On August 30th

By Scott Gilfoid: Former WBA heavyweight champions John Ruiz (43-7-1, 29 KOs) and Nikolay Valuev (48-1, 34 KOs) will fight for the vacant WBA heavyweight title on August 30th at Max Schmeling Halle, Prenzlauer Berg, in Berlin, Germany. The title was vacated by WBA heavyweight champion Ruslan Chagaev who has been struck down several times with serious illnesses and injuries causing him to cancel two title defenses and a planned unification bout. Chagaev’s latest medical problem, a tear of his Achilles tendon, caused a second cancellation of his title defense against Valuev which had been previously scheduled for July 5th.

Ruiz, 36 and Valuev previously met in December 2005, when Valuev took a controversial 12-round majority decision over Ruiz to take his title in a fight fought in Germany. The final decision, however, seemed not to match the actual fight that took place for Ruiz landed the harder shots and appeared to dominate most, if not all, of the exchanges that took place in the fight. The location of the bout, fought in Germany where Valuev, 34, is currently promoted, seemed to lead to more speculation by boxing fans that Ruiz had been the victim of a home town decision. Despite the controversy surrounding the outcome of the fight, Ruiz was never given a rematch with Valuev – until now.

Following the victory, Valuev was matched with three consecutive soft opponents, Owen Beck, Monte Barrett and Jameel McCline, all of whom he beat by knockout. However, he struggled against Barrett, who landed a high number of pot shots during the fight until wearing down under the heavy onslaught of the 7′ foot 320 pound Valuev and getting stopped in the 11th round. Valuev was also have problems with McCline, taking big shots in the 2nd and 3rd round until McCline suddenly dislocated his knee while in the process of throwing a punch in the 3rd round. Valuev would soon find himself on the receiving end of a controversial loss when Ruslan Chagaev, another former Eastern bloc fighter being promoted in Germany, defeated Valuev by a 12-round majority decision in April 2007 to take Valuev’s WBA heavyweight title.

This bout was even more of controversial fight, for Chagaev landed few punches to the head of Valuev during the fight, hitting mostly is gloves and sometimes his chest in the fight. The rest of the time, Chagaev spent moving around on the outside and trying to avoid Valuev. It was perhaps the oddest way of winning a title that this writer has ever seen because Chagaev seemed to be fighting passively, staying on the outside and avoiding Valuev as if he were trying to stall the action in every round. Valuev would later rebound from the defeat to decision Jean Francois Bergeron and Serguei Lyakhovich in 2007 and 2008, with the latter fight being the WBA title eliminator.

The winner of the August 30th fight between Valuev and Ruiz still must face Chagaev, “the champion in recess”, who has up until June 26, 2009 to defend his title or else lose it to either Ruiz or Valuev. The time off, which is quite lengthy, should be more than enough for Chagaev to mend his injured Achilles tendon, but there’s still doubts from some boxing circles whether another sudden illness might spring up before then, knocking out another title defense for Chagaev.

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