Valuev Remain Valuable

Nikolay Valuev, not only remained an important prospect in heavyweight boxing rather he made himself a valuable asset. This is largely due to the victory over former world champion Sergi Lyakhovich. The fight which took place in Nuremberg, Germany was clearly dominated by Valuev.

The 7ft tall boxer made good use of his height advantage. He ensured that Lyakhovich struggled through out the fight. Both men came into that fight looking great and in form, but it was obvious that Valuev had received a tremendous training lesson from his trainer, Alexander Zimin. He was faster, stronger and made good use of his left jab. When I studied the fight closely, it appeared to me that Sergi Lyakhovich did not consider the size of Valuev during training. It was clear that, Valuev won using the size advantage.

Lyakhovich, tried to ward off the attack of Valuev but it was only momentarily as valuev came forward most times to deliver some deadly punch. Although Lyakhovich was not hurt throughout the fight, he took some punches that dried the sweat off his face. He tried to move in between Valuev, to enable him land some shots but was kept at bay by Valuev’s left jabs.

After watching the fight, I picked two rounds as my best rounds. The fourth and tenth round. In the fourth round, Lyakhovich started aggressively, he landed a shot on Valuev’s head. He dogged most of Valuev’s punches after Valuev pushed him to the ropes. Valuev reacted with some aggressive shots but was immediately countered by Lyakhovich’s sharp left jabs and a left hook to the head of the giant.

The tenth round was evenly matched. Both men were beginning to slow down.Valuev continues to score effectively with his jabs but misses some shots with Lyakhovich moving his head. Valuev landed a right hand on Lyakhovich, the best throughout the fight, Lyakhovich responded with a series of quick left jabs to the head but really did not rock the giant, it was an even round.

Valuev won a majority decision; the judges scored the fight 120-108,120-108 and 120-107. The ring side commentator stated Nikolay Valuev threw four hundred punches to come out tops. By this victory Nikolay Valuev is now the mandatory challenger to the WBA heavyweight title currently held Ruslan Chagaev. In my view, Niklolay is a key contender to the various heavyweight titles and more importantly Sergi Lyakhovic remains relevant, he should just pick up the pieces and move on.