Nicolay Valuev

BrianD3 · 26-07-2005 5:27pm #1

Anyone ever see any of this heavyweight's fights? What do you think of him? Valuev is by quite a margin the biggest fighter I've ever seen. Over 7 feet tall and around 320 pounds.

I saw his fight against Paulo Vidoz, Vidoz got a few good shots in but Valuev barely noticed. One thing I remember is that the commentator said that Valuev had a very poor hook for a professsional heavyweight.

Geiger · 26-07-2005 7:41pm

I saw his last fight on Eurosport, against Etienne. You're right, Valuev is huge and you really have to see him in the ring to understand just how big he is. It has to be said though that for all his size Valuev lacks real power. I heard talk of him fighting Ruiz for the WBA belt. I think we've finally found someone Ruiz can't hug for 12 rounds

BrianD3 · 26-07-2005 8:48pm

Yes Geiger, the first time I saw a pic of Valuev in the ring with another fighter I thought the pic had been photoshopped

Then when I saw the Vidoz fight Vidoz looked like some small pesky little kid in the ring with a large adult male. The I heard that Vidoz is in fact 6 foot 4 :eek:

Valuev is 320 pounds yet doesn't look particularly muscular (eg Bob Sapp in K1) or fat (eg Riddick Bowe these days) Of course a lot of people are calling him a freak and a neanderthal and I have read some comments which allege that he suffers from Acromegaly which is clearly untrue.

There has to come a point where his massive height, reach and weight makes up for poor ability. And I'm not even sure that Valuev is even a poor boxer. As well as looking impossible to hurt, he looked like a pretty decent puncher in the fight I saw. His punches don't look that powerful but they could well be deceptive.

Geiger · 27-07-2005 1:46am

He is ranked number 9 by the WBC, 6 by the IBF and is the highest ranked WBA contender. If he keeps winning he'll get a title shot sooner or later and I'd give him a good chance of beating Byrd or Ruiz. He's certainly a guy who likes his dinners...

snakeater · 27-07-2005 3:55pm

The size of him! I notice he is undefeated, not suprising considering his size but is he technically a good boxer? Here's a pic of him with Tszyu. :eek: