By Erik Schmidt: The World Boxing Association will come up with a decision on what to do about yesterday’s cancelled fight bout between WBA heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev and the champion in recess Ruslan Chagaev in approximately one week according to reports. The fight was supposed to have taken place today in Helsinki, Findlan, but the 30-year-old Chagaev failed the pre-fight medical examination by the Finland boxing medical staff due to an undisclosed illness.

Chagaev states that he’s “healthy” and can take the fight. However, the Finland medical staff has ruled otherwise, making the fight, including the other fights on the card minus the Cecilia Braekhus vs. Amy Yuratovac and Robert Helenius vs. Scott Gammer bouts.

Chagaev’s status as champion in recess is very much up in the air at this moment needless to say, as this isn’t the first time that he’s had a bout cancelled for one reason or another. In the past two years, he’s had two other bouts cancelled due to injuries or illnesses and has been lucky to still have a portion of the title after the many fight disruptions.

It’s highly unlikely that the WBA will want to take a chance of setting up a 4th fight attempt between Chagaev and Valuev given the numerous cancellations that have already occurred on Chagaev’s end. However, in boxing it’s entirely possible.

If for some reason that Chagaev is removed of his status of champion of recess, then two-time former WBA heavyweight champion John Ruiz, the number #1 mandatory challenger, will likely be next in line for the 35-year-old Valuev.

Ruiz has twice before been defeated by Valuev, losing to him once in 2005 by a majority decision (and losing his WBA heavyweight title in the process) and then losing for a second time by a 12-round split decision in August 2008, with both bouts taking place in Germany where Valuev is currently promoted.

The thought of a third fight between the two fighters is more than a little off-putting because it holds little interest because of the two previous dull fights between them and it’s a fight that holds few promises of a different outcome than the other two fights.

However, the options don’t get much better after Ruiz, because Australian Kali Meehan would then be next in line for a title shot against Valuev. As you can see, the talent level is very thin in the WBA and Valuev in theory could stay a heavyweight champion for years to come without having to face a serious threat like Alexander Povetkin, Alexander Dimitrenko or Chris Arreola.

Valuev struggled in his last fight, beating 46-year-old Evander Holyfield by a 12 round majority decision in Germany. Few people felt that Valuev won the fight, however.