Valuev defeats Holyfield by majority decision

It was far from the most exciting fight of the year, but WBC heavyweight champion Nikolai Valuev—all 7 feet of him—defended his belt on Saturday against ageless Evander Holyfield.  Holyfield appeared to be in great shape as always but did little to bring Valuev out of his defensive shell.  After twelve rounds, Valuev prevailed by majority decision.  Two of the three judges scored it for the Russian 116-112 and 115-114 while the third scored it a draw.

At age 46, Holyfield would have been the oldest heavyweight champion in history had he been able to knock off Valuev.  Early in the fight, Holyfield used his speed and agility to move around the ring and stay outside the giant reach of his opponent.  As the fight progressed, however, Valuev began to land his jab with greater regularity.  Despite doing enough to win rounds, the result was a tedious fight that saw a lot of Valuev standing in the middle of the ring and Holyfield dancing in circles around him.

Most serious fight fans consider Valuev a heavyweight champion in name only—he’s fought an extremely uninspired list of challengers.  More dauntingly, he’s refused to fight either of the Klitschko to help pare down the championship landscape.  His reticence toward challenging himself in the ring has left many in the sport with a dismissive attitude toward Valuev.  Still, Holyfield had some praise for his gargantuan opponent with the observation that "His hands are not as slow as everyone thinks they are”.

Likewise, Valuev spoke highly of his well traveled opponent:

"He made me work very hard for the win. Holyfield was unbelievable with his speed. The fight was fought at a great tempo for the whole 12 rounds."

Not really sure what fight Valuev was talking about, since there was nothing about his title defense that suggested “great tempo”.

Holyfield is now left to contemplate his future.  He’s long past the point where he should have retired but, to his credit, remains in phenomenal shape.  Much of his hesitancy to leave the ring stems from financial problems, but at some point that’s no excuse for continuing to risk his health.  Still, he didn’t embarrass himself against Valuev and could be looking for another opportunity against a top heavyweight or even a “freak show” rematch against Riddick Bowe who himself has tenuously started down the comeback trail.  Hopefully that won’t come to pass, as it would be a pitiful coda to one of the great heavyweight trilogies in the history of the sweet science.

The fight was held in Zurich, Switzerland before 12,500 pro Holyfield fans.  They may have just been supporting the challenger by default as they certainly didn’t like Valuev—they booed the big Russian at every opportunity from the opening bell to the announcement of the decision.  Some even whistled with derision as the Russian national anthem was played.  Perhaps they were merely expressing firsthand what most boxing fans worldwide were feeling about this matchup.