By William MacKay: Former WBA heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev (48-1, 34 KOs) will be looking to avenge his only defeat on his record when he goes up against undefeated WBA heavyweight champion Ruslan Chagaev (24-0-1, 17 KOs) on July 5th, at the Gerry Weber Statdium, in Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. Valuev and Chagaev were previously scheduled to fight on May 31st, but Chagaev was struck ill with a nasty viral infection involving his upper respiratory tract.
Valuev, 34, lost his title to Chagaev in a closely contested majority decision loss in April 2007, a bout in which Chagaev hardly proved himself to have done enough to have taken the title from the 7’0” 320 lb Valuev. There had been hopes immediately after that fight that Chagaev would give Valuev an immediate rematch, giving him a shot at regaining his title. However, Chagaev instead opted to take an easy fight against British heavyweight Matt Skelton, whom he beat by a dull 12-round unanimous decision victory in January. Previous to that, Chagaev had hoped to meet up with then WBO heavyweight champion Sultan Ibragimov in what would have been a unification bout scheduled for October 13th, in Moscow, Russia, but that fight fell through when Chagaev again became ill and had to cancel the fight.
By Erik Schmidt: I often wonder how would the great Rocky Marciano (49-0, 43 KOs) do against today’s heavyweights. It’s perhaps even more of a question now than ever due to the lack of talent and interest in the heavyweight division. It’s been a decade since the heavyweight division had a champion – Mike Tyson – that fans were interested in, and since that time the quality of the fighters has dropped off dramatically, along with naturally the interest in the division as a whole. Many people say that it’s impossible for fighters of different generations to fight each other due to the size differences, the more advanced training techniques, and the better nutrition available now compared to the 40s and the 50s, when Marciano was at the top of the sport. 
By Erik Schmidt: For the second time since winning his WBA title in April 2007, heavyweight champion Ruslan Chagaev (24-0-1, 17 KOs) has been forced to pull out of a bout due to a virus. His opponent, former WBA heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev (48-1, 34 KOs) will be forced to wait a little longer, perhaps a lot longer while Chagaev attempts to defeat this lingering virus. Since winning the WBA title by a controversial majority decision over Valuev in 2006, Chagaev has only defended it a paltry one time over Matt Skelton in on January 19th. 
By Scott Gilfoid: Undefeated WBA heavyweight champion Ruslan Chagaev (24-0, 17 KOs) will finally be giving a rematch to former champion Nikolay Valuev (48-1, 34 KOs), whom he beat by a majority decision on April 14th 2007. The rematch long awaited by Valuev, will be taking place on May 31st at the Arena Oberhausen, Oberhausen, in Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. In their prior fight, Chagaev did little to distinguish himself as the victor in the fight as he defensively, mostly staying on the outside and when he would attempt to land punches, they would come up short and land on Valuev’s chest or gloves.
In a fight that was marred by excessive wrestling on the inside, undefeated World Boxing Association heavyweight champion Ruslan Chagaev (24-0-1, 17 KOs) won a hard-fought unanimous decision over 40 year-old Matt Skelton (21-2, 18 KOs) on Saturday night at the Burg-Waechter Castello, in Dusseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. In the opening round, Skelton found a way to negate Chagaev’s superior offensive attack, namely by grabbing him and trying to maul him on the inside. It worked perfectly, at least for awhile, as Skelton expertly used fine inside fighting tactics, such as holding and hitting, leaning on his opponent and rabbit punches, all to perfection. 
Now that a little time has gone by since Lennox Lewis (41-2-1, 32 KOs) has been out of boxing, I thought it would be an interesting idea to speculate how “The Lion” would have done against today’s top heavyweight champions – Wladimir Klitschko, Sultan Ibragimov, Ruslan Chagaev and Samuel Peter. Lewis was perhaps in his prime in 1997, around the time that he destroyed Andrew Golota in one vicious round at the Caesars Hotel & Casino, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. At that time in his career, the 6″5″ 250 lb Lewis was almost indestructible, with impressive wins over Ray Mercer, Oliver McCall and Tommy Morrison already on his resume.