Valuev: The giant goes west

By JE Grant

Nicolay Valuev, the 7-footer weighed in at a whopping 328 Thursday in preparation for the second defense of his share of the heavyweight title at the Allstate Arena in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont.

His opponent, the affable and mildly talented Monte Barrett, himself no small fellow at 6’3” and 223 pounds (yes, that’s 105 fewer pounds than Valuev), appeared confident and less than impressed by the giant once dubbed “The Beast from the East.”

While 328 is the heaviest of Valuev’s career, it is just a few pounds from his normal 320-ish. Fitness won’t be an issue for either fighter.

Naturally the size of the titlist and the size differential between him and his opponent is the only real draw for this bout.

Valuev has beaten able fighters such as John Ruiz and Larry Donald to amass his record of 44-0 (32 KOs) including 1 NC. In both bouts, however, the decisions were of the very disputed variety.

American fans have not yet witnessed the big man’s game and many may be surprised to see some incongruities.

Despite his appearance, the “Russian Giant,” as he is now being called, is agile. Working steadily behind a better than average jab, Valuev forces his opponents to work hard throughout the contest to avoid him.

One would think that the enormous span of his jab and his ability and willingness to use it would keep his foes at bay. Most of his better opposition, most notably Donald, has proven able to get under or around the jab on numerous occasions to land a variety of punches.

More confounding, however, is the fact that even with 320-plus pounds behind his blows, Valuev has only slightly above-average power. George Foreman won’t be forgotten by watching him.

His most unsurprising shortcoming is a lack of speed, thus the loophole available to most of his potential opponent to make up for the tremendous size difference.

The speed deficit has resulted in his being clocked with heavy shots from several opponents. No one has shown an ability to dent his rock-solid chin to date.

Since signing away a slice of his promotional pie to Don King, the blueprint for his title reign that is emerging is fighting King-related fighters who sit on the fringes of the ranked members of the division.

In his first title defense, Valuev scored a three-round knockout of Owen Beck, a fighter who had lost two of his preceding three fights (including a stoppage loss to Barrett). Beck, like Barrett, had above average skills but no history of being able to rise above the crowd.

The enigmatic 35 year-old New Yorker Barrett, 31-4 (17 KOs), has always shown talent if not an ability to move to the elite level of the division. Despite solid wins over the likes of fringe contenders such as Beck and Dominck Guinn as well as over-the-hill ex-champs Tim Witherspoon and Greg Page, Barrett has come up short in the breakout bouts.

Close losses to Lance Whitaker and Joe Mesi showed that he belonged in the same ring as the big guys but that he couldn’t get past the lower part of the top ten.

A blowout loss to Wladimir Klitschko (Barrett was down five times before being stopped in seven rounds) and a clear points loss to Hasim Rahman demonstrated the truly elite level was just beyond his grasp.

Since that August 2005 loss to Rahman, “Two Gunz” has not had any fights. For a 35 year-old fighter this is an interesting path to a title shot.

With above average boxing ability and very average power, he enters the ring against Valuev a decided underdog.

PREDICTION: Valuev will seek to establish his long jab as Barrett tries to weave away from it and land counters. He has the capability to get in quick shots against the available chin of the big man. The interesting question to be answered is whether he can get past that jab often enough to make it interesting. Valuev will force the action throughout and test Barrett’s resolve and ability shake off the ring rust accumulated over the last 14 months. Look for Valuev to outwork Barrett and land early and often on the smaller, lighter-hitting challenger. Barrett will not likely produce enough volume to take Valuev out of his game. Valuev will rack up round after round without seriously hurting Barrett. Valuev by easy 12-round decision.