Nikolai Valuev vs. Ruslan Chagaev

Nikolai Valuev vs. Ruslan Chagaev was a professional boxing match contested on 14 April 2007, for the WBA heavyweight championship.

Background
After his controversial victory over John Ruiz in December 2005, WBA heavyweight champion Nikolai Valuev had made 3 successful defences, all by stoppage, and had expressed interest in fighting the then-IBF world heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko.

Ruslan Chagaev had become Valuev's mandatory challenger following his split decision victory over former champion Ruiz in November 2006. Valuev was sat ringside and believed Chagaev was the rightful winner.

During his training camp ahead of bout, Chagaev's trainer Michael Timm had a special podium built, on which he stood up so Chagaev could get used to punching up to someone with a big height advantage. Most of his sparring partners, such as Julius Long, were between 2.00 m and 2.16 m tall. Timm also had a Panasonic TV with a 2.5 m diagonal installed so they could study Valuev's style in full size.

Valuev entered the ring as a 5 to 1 favourite.

The fight
Chagaev used his speed and footwork to nullify Valuev's size advantage, successfully bobbing and weaving, slipping under Valuev's jab and going back-and-forth between moving to the left and right to confuse Valuev with movement.

After 12 rounds Chagaev won the fight by a majority decision with scores of 117–111, 115–113 and 114–114.

Aftermath
Speaking after the bout Chagaev said "Before the fight everybody said that Nikolai is too tall for me to have a chance. Well, I'm smaller but I have the sting." Shortly afterwards Chagaev signed to face WBO champion Sultan Ibragimov in a unification showdown that would take place in Moscow in October 2007. However, on 31 July, it was officially announced that the fight had been cancelled due to Chagaev suffering from an aggravation of gastric problems. Instead, former undisputed heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield agreed to step in as a last-minute replacement. It was later discovered that Chagaev had contracted hepatitis B.

Undercard
Confirmed bouts: