By Jason Kim: Heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev (50-1, 34 KOs) was recently given the status of the “official” World Boxing Association heavyweight champion by the WBA this week after WBA “champion in recess” Ruslan Chagaev failed a pre-fight medical test before their scheduled fight two weeks ago.

The WBA is also reviewing Chagaev’s status as champion in recess and could possibly be stripping him of that status. Chagaev won’t sweating either way, because he has a much bigger fight with IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko set for the 20th of June and even if Chagaev does lose, he’ll still remain an in demand heavyweight for other champions.

So where does this leave Valuev? With Chagaev out as an opponent for the third time, Valuev has to try and dig up a beatable opponent for him to fight. Valuev had a chance to fight Wladimir Klitschko but he decided not to take Wladimir up on the offer to step in for injured David Haye on June 20th.

On the surface, it’s hard to understand why Valuev would choose not to want to fight Wladimir, since the fight would have made Valuev a lot of money and given him a ton of visibility in the process. But Valuev may be more concerned with holding onto his WBA title rather than taking on a risky fight against Wladimir and losing it. For a fighter with little real talent or power, Valuev has about as many options as Wladimir does for choosing opponents to fight.

To start with, Valuev can always select 46-year-old Evander Holyfield to fight again. Valuev defeated Holyfield by a controversial 12 round majority decision in December. Valuev had a hard time in that fight with Holyfield’s movement and reluctance to exchange with Valuev for any length of time.

However, It’s a much winnable fight for Valuev than other less appealing options such as fighting David Haye, Chris Arreola or Vitali Klitschko. Holyfield wants a rematch and the fight would be big in Germany because of Holyfield’s name. The bout would probably draw flies if it were to take place in the United States. But in Germany the local boxing fans are much less demanding of their heroes.

Aside from Holyfield, Valuev could also choose to fight John Ruiz for a third time. Valuev has beaten him twice previously by narrow 12 round decisions and would have to be favored in a third fight because of his huge size. Ruiz is ranked at number #1 in the WBA, so he’s the next one that is in line for the title shot.

I doubt that Valuev will choose to fight Ruiz unless he absolutely has to because of the way that he had to struggle to beat him in the first two fights. If the WBA lets Valuev take an optional defense, you can expect that Valuev will take the bottom number #15 ranked heavyweight Brian Minto, a small heavyweight that the monstrous Valuev would likely be able to maul without too many problems. It would be a dull fight but Valuev should at least be able to keep his title for a little while longer.