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It's likely that Valuev has never had to fight a taller opponent (well, not since he stopped growing)

It's likely that Valuev has never had to fight a taller opponent (well, not since he stopped growing)

Talk about David against Goliath – in terms of size, that is.

But when it comes to attitude, English fighter David Haye is the one picking on Russian Nikolay Valuev, who stands 7’2″, for the WBA heavyweight crown in Germany on November 7 (click here to read here).

Valuev is one of three “recognised” heavyweight world champions at the moment, along with the Klitschko brothers, Vitali and Wladimir.

Valuev briefly trained with Brian Mitchell – South Africa’s former junior-lightweight star – in Johannesburg in the mid-1990s, and while there he apparently sparred with Corrie Sanders. The word is that he was taken to school by Sanders.

Corrie, of course, shot to fame when he blew Wladimir away in two rounds in 2003, although he himself was beaten by Vitali a year later.

I say this with the greatest respect to Sanders, but the fact that two-thirds of the reigning world heavyweight crown is shared by two men he previously mastered shows how the standard of that division has dropped (there can simply be no comparisons to the eras of Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, Larry Holmes, Mike Tyson and even Evander Holyfield).

Of course this serves the smaller pugilists, like Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather, who are the focus of world boxing at the moment.

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Comments

 

boxing fan

October 20, 2009 at 2:20 pm

You are correct their is no comparision the K brothers are much better than ali, foreman, holmes. I have watched boxing for many years for instance I saw ali go 12 rounds with wepner a really bad boxer. I watched ali go 12 with frazier a guy who was knoced out in 1 round by a slow foreman. Amerian journalist just dont like the fact that there is no american champion. Boxing has changed now that the russians are allowed to compete why begrude them they are truly great fighters just like the american champions were the best of their day but would do poorly against todays champs.

 

JonnyFolds

October 20, 2009 at 8:36 pm

Actually Sanders was blown away by Vitali K. Get the facts straight. Corrie Sanders was a good puncher and a pretty solid boxer. He came out guns slinging with Wlad and never let him retreat and recover.

Second, “boxingfan” Frazier was KOed in 2 by foreman (6 KDs in 2 rounds). But is it so hard to see these matchups resulting like this? Big punchers don’t need a lot of time usually. And I think there were no misconceptions that Frazier-Foreman was not going past the 4th round.

The Klitschkos are a couple of pansies in the ring. I prefer many other HW fighter. But they fight the fight that wins for them. Until someone can contest them it’s going to be really hard to dispute their greatness.

 

Gutterdandy

October 20, 2009 at 11:20 pm

How long do you think Chuck Wepner would last with either Klitschko brother?
A round, tops? Hell, even Valuev would beat a lot of the now overrated fighters of the mythical 1970s. Nostalgia is boxing’s biggest enemy. it’s what is here now that matters, not something that happened 40 years ago.

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    At the height of his sporting prowess, David Isaacson could be seen every Saturday afternoon climbing the stairs to the upper gallery of Newlands. An all-round sportsman in his younger days - he was equally awful at cricket, soccer, athletics, swimming, table tennis, tennis, judo, cycling, hockey, basketball, volleyball and touch rugby - David quickly learnt that it was much easier (and far less painful) to be an armchair critic. As a journalist he has covered three Olympic Games, infuriated several sports administrators, reported on numerous other events and irritated Butana Komphela.
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