After dealing with both injury and illness which has kept him out of the ring since winning the title in April, undefeated World Boxing Association heavyweight champion Ruslan Chagaev (23-0-1, 17 KOs) will be defending his title on January 19th against 40 year-old British heavyweight Matt Skelton (21-1, 18 KOs) at the Burg-Waechter Castello in Dusseldorf, Switzerland. For most people, this is a disappointing opponent for Chagaev, as many were hoping that Chagaev would either fight a rematch with Nicolay Valuev, whom Chagaev, 29, defeated by a majority decision in April.
Ruslan Chagaev
A Prime George Foreman Against The Current Heavyweight Champions: Klitschko, Ibragimov, Peter, Maskaev and Chagaev
I’ve always wondered how a young George Foreman would have done in this a day and age against the mostly Eastern European fighters. For the sake of this discussion, I’m pitting a prime 24 year-old George Foreman against the current heavyweight champions Wladimir Klitschko, Sultan Ibragimov, Ruslan Chagaev, Samuel Peter and Oleg Maskaev. At 24, Foreman was perhaps at his peak physically, a period in which he destroyed Joe Frazier in two brutal rounds, knocking him down six times in the process.
Chagaev vs. Ibragimov
By Sam Bevington: In one of the first boxing heavyweight unifications bouts in ages, WBA heavyweight champion Ruslan Chagaev (23-0, 17 KOs) will meet up with Sultan Ibragimov (21-0, 17 KOs), the WBO heavyweight champion, on October 13, 2007, in Moscow, Russian. Both fighters have recently won their titles, and neither of them have much of a following in the United States or the world, for that matter. In terms of talent, both Ibragimov and Chagaev have to be considered two of the weakest heavyweight champions in memory, at least as far as I can recall.
Ibragimov, 32, won his title over Shannon Briggs, winning a 12-round unanimous decision on June 2, 2007, in a fight in which Briggs threw very few punches. It wasn’t the case of Ibagimov looking good, but more so that Briggs appeared to be battling health problems during the bout, and had problems breathing. Rather than taking advantage of Brigg’s immobility and punishing him, Ibragimov mostly stayed on the outside and threw jabs, and looking very timid. As for Chagaev, he won the WBA title in April 2007, beating Nikolay Valuev by majority decision. However, it appeared that Chagaev, in fact, lost the fight, as was the case in his fight with John Ruiz in November 2006, where Chagaev won a 12-round split decision.
The Paper Champion’s guide to avoiding unification! Ibragimov vs Chagaev in perspective!
By Izyaslav “Slava” Koza: Recently I had the utter displeasure of reading Chris Byrd’s comments regarding how the October 13 unification bout is basically useless. Seeing as during Byrd’s paper title reign I felt he was the worst of the so called “titleholders,” it was my duty to provide a response to those comments, by putting together this little convenient step-by-step guide to what he, as well as others, have IN MY PERSONAL VIEW managed to do during their campaigns.