Holyfield-Valuev: Multiple Witnesses to a Robbery


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Holyfield-Valuev: Multiple Witnesses to a Robbery

By Bob Carroll, Doghouse Boxing (Dec 22, 2008) DoghouseBoxing.com

Saturday night in Zurich Switzerland, 12,500 people witness a robbery. These people were unable to call the local authorities because this was a legal robbery, but they sure let it be known after the decision was announced. Saturday night, Evander Holyfield fought, and in my opinion, beat, Nikolai Valuev for the interim WBA heavyweight championship. This fight was not a great fight, not even a good fight and I would go as far as saying it was a boring fight, but Evander Holyfield did just enough to win the title. If he had won, at age 46 he would have become the oldest heavyweight champion ever, eclipsing the great George Foreman who won the title at age 45. The judges decided to take that achievement away from Holyfield, scoring the bout a 114-114 draw and 116-112, 115-114 for Valuev.

Holyfield was the much busier fighter in this bout, occasionally jumping inside of Valuev and landing shots. Holyfield never had Valuev in any kind of trouble, just peppering him with shots throughout the bout. Valuev on the other hand did nothing more than throw an occasional shot and lumber around the ring. I wondered aloud whether he had been told he was in a fight. Valuev seemed unfazed when Holyfield stepped inside and threw his shots, but did not offer much resistance to the man. Valuev never cut off the ring and slow down Holyfield, never used his seven inch reach advantage to keep Holyfield outside, and never seemed to land much of a threatening punch.

What does this result do for the heavyweight division? Absolutely nothing. The boxing public may have just been ensured that Nikolai Valuev would rematch Ruslan Chagaev in another terribly boring heavyweight title match-up. Meanwhile, much more deserving fighters will stand by and watch how the world of the heavyweight titles turn out. The boxing public deserves a lot more than Valuev-Chagaev 2, but I am afraid that this is what we will be getting.

Just a side note. In my pre-fight article I stated that I hadn't purposely missed a heavyweight title fight, but I would miss this fight. Well, my curiosity got the best of me, so I decided to check out the fight. I can only say there is one hour of my life that I will never get back.

For more on the world of boxing, listen to Bob Carroll, and his co-hosts Butch and Benny Henderson Jr on Fightin' Words Radio Show, Wednesday nights, 6-7pm eastern standard on http://1490wwpr.com.