Valuev Defeats Holyfield, Both Look Terrible

By Aaron Klein: In one of the worst decisions I’ve ever seen in my life, World Boxing Association (WBA) heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev (50-1, 34 KOs) defeated former 4-time heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield (42-10-2, 27 KOs) by a controversial 12-round majority decision tonight at the Hallenstadion, in Zurich, Switzerland. The final judges’ scores were 116-112, 114-114 and 115-114. However, Valuev, 35, did little in the fight until the 8th round, appearing to lose all of the first seven rounds to the 46-year-old Holyfield.

Indeed, the only one that was landing any punches for the first seven rounds was Holyfield, who bounced continuously and used lateral movement to keep the slow, lethargic looking Valuev from landing any shots. Holyfield appeared to tire slightly in the last four rounds of the fight, and appeared to lose the 8th, 9th and 12th rounds. However, he did more than enough in the first seven rounds to get the belt based on his cleaner shots.

After the fight, Valuev was twice booed loudly by the Swiss crowd when he raised his hands to signal victory. The crowd had backed Holyfield during the entire fight, cheering loudly at every punch attempt he made.

In truth, both fighters looked positively terrible throughout the 12-round fight, throwing few punches, missing often and looking slow and old. One would hope that Holyfield gets a hint from this loss and decides to retire, because he would have likely been destroyed if he had fought one of the Klitschko brothers tonight instead of Valuev.

Valuev pawed with his jab in the first round, looking afraid to throw it with any kind of conviction for feat that Holyfield would pick it off and counter him with a right hand. Indeed, that’s exactly what happened on a couple of occasions in the round, and it made Valuev very cautious for the remainder of the round. Other than couple of good right hands from Holyfield, he did nothing else in the round, and spent most of the time moving from side to side to keep Valuev from landing. It’s sad to say that those two punches is all it took for Holyfield to win the round, because Valuev did zero in the round.

In rounds two and three, Valuev plodded after Holyfield, standing straight up like a modern day Frankenstein monster, and throwing short, slow jabs, that missed most of the time. The jabs that did connect did little damage because of the lack of snap that Valuev was putting into them. Holyfield won both rounds due to his right hands he was landing. Like in the first, he Holyfield was only capable of landing a couple of rights in each round, and spent the better part of the round moving side side. It was like watching a watered down version Holyfield in contrast to his prime years in the 80s and mid-90s. Back then, Holyfield would have tore into Valuev in every round, ripping him to pieces with combinations. Now, however, at 46, he seemed only capable of throwing 5-10 punches per round, which is awful, I know, but Valuev was even worse and that allowed Holyfield to dominate.

In rounds four through seven, Holyfield continued with his later movement and bouncing, giving Valuev trouble because the Giant seemed unable to track a moving target. Every once in a great while, maybe once or twice per minute, Holyfield would throw a a few punches, and then back off and start moving again for another minute. The action, or lack thereof, was painful to watch and the crowd began booing starting in the 4th. Valuev continued to lose the fight, and by this point, I had him trailing seven rounds to zero, making it necessary for him to score a knockout if he wanted to win. I should have known better, though. Valuev did land a couple of good right hands in the 7th. However, Holyfield returned fire each time, and tagged him back with some big hooks to the head, snapping Valuev’s head around.

In the 8th, Valuev appeared to win his first round of the fight, landing a handful of good right hands and uppercuts. This time, Holyfield wasn’t able to better his output, because he spent too much time moving side to side and gave up the round because of that. Valuev fought well in the 9th, as well, landing some hard right hands and looking as if he were trying to go for a knockout. Both fighters clashed heads in the round, with Holyfield backing off, wincing in pain and looking at the referee for support.

In the 10th, Holyfield fought well, landing some powerful right hands to narrowly win the round. Valuev, for his part, landed one big right hand in the round, and several other good shots, but it wasn’t quite enough to win the round due to Holyfield’s better work. In the 11th, Holyfield landed some nice hooks to the head of Valuev and making him miss with his own power shots. In the 12th, Holyfield, for whatever reason, seemed to be playing it safe and moving like he thought he had the fight in the bag. As such, he gave the round away by staying on the move and not fighting hard during the round. This, in effect, gave Valuev the final round, and as it turns out, the fight.

“I felt I won. I hit him more than he hit me, I felt,” a disappointed sounding Holyfield said afterwards.

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