The Back-Door Return of Nikolay Valuev
By Frances Martel
Boxing is a game as much as it is a skill. The distinction between knowing how to win a fight and having boxing skill is a confusing one when launching criticism at fighters that win, but don’t know how to play. Russian super heavyweight Nikolay Valuev (46-1, 34 KOs), who employs the advantage of being 7 feet tall and averaging 320 pounds to defeat his opponents yet has no apparent boxing skill, is particularly headache-inducing. His victory via a deviant avenue gives appeal to watching him lose—his failure means the triumph of normalcy. This negative sentiment will be a mental barrier he will have to tear down against mystery opponent Jean-Francois Bergeron (27-0, 19 KOs) on September 29 in Germany.
RUSSKIE V. FRENCH FRY FOR NORTH AMERICAN BELT?
Don King’s eye-catching pet project will be fighting Bergeron, an obscure French Canadian with even stranger names in his undefeated record (a small one at the age of 34), for the North American Boxing Association title, currently under the possession of the latter. The inherent irony of a Russian and a Canadian fighting in Germany for the North American Boxing Association title certainly merits notice—imagine FIFA allowing the Brazilian soccer team to play for the Euro Cup—yet there are even more intriguing elements to this match than the prize. For one, King has been comparatively mum about this fight, at least in the United States. Valuev is not stampeding through the streets of New York like a lost zoo animal this time, nor is he chatting it up with Neil Cavuto at Fox News or Donald Trump. Of course, this has much to do with the fact that Valuev is not fighting for a world title and not making an appearance on American television. Yet Don King’s website, a global medium, seems too preoccupied with the extremely dubious meeting between Fernando Vargas (26-4, 22 KOs) and Ricardo Mayorga (28-6-1, 23 KOs) and Juan Diaz’s (32-0, 16 KOs) political career to even mention the fight. The fact that no effort whatsoever is being made to promote this fight seems to imply that the giant has outstayed his welcome.
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