Nikolai Valuev (born August 21, 1973) is the first Russian professional heavyweight
boxing champion and the current holder of the WBA title. His alias used to be "The Beast from
the East" but he now prefers to be styled "The Russian Giant".
Nikolai Valuev is the tallest and heaviest recognized champion of all time, standing at
2.13 m (7') tall and weighing as much as 150 kg (330 lb). There are however other less
successful boxers of similar stature in recorded history: George Mitu, Jim Cully and John
Rankin were all above 7 feet and Jimmy Black weighed in at 360 pounds prior to his match
against Claude McBride on 1 June 1971.
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Nikolai Valuev propelled himself into a position to fight for a world title with victories over Bob Mirovic, Otis Tisdale, Paolo Vidoz, Gerald Nobles, Attila Levin, and Clifford Etienne. In August 2005 Valuev was rated by major boxing sanctioning bodies as #2 by the WBA, #8 by the WBC, and #6 by the IBF. On December 17, 2005, Nikolai Valuev squared off with WBA heavyweight champion John Ruiz, and won a controversial twelve round majority-decision.
Despite his imposing size and unblemished record, many boxing experts and writers doubt Nikolai Valuev's ability as a boxer, and some have labeled him a 'freak show'. His current record stands at 44-0-0-1 with 32 KOs. Against John Ruiz, two judges favoured Nikolai Valuev by scores of 116-114 and 116-113, while the third saw the fight as a 114-114 draw - enough to give Nikolai Valuev the title.