Heavyweight boxing has been in the doldrums for a while so there was definitely a buzz in boxing circles when David Haye stepped up to heavyweight after unifying the cruiserwight division.
And after a few false starts - most notably an aborted bout against Vitali Klitschko this summer - fight fans will get another chance to see Haye fighting at heavyweight next month. And not just any heavyweight but perhaps the heaviest of them all, the so-called Beast from the East, Nikolay Valuev. Standing 7ft 2 inches and weighing in at more than 23 stone, Valuev is, even by boxing standards, a freak of nature. Anyone tuning into the recent press conference may have been forgiven for thinking they'd stumbled across a David Attenborough documentary, because the fact is, and I'm not going to win any Russian friends by saying this, Valuev doesn't look human.
Haye told reporters: "He's a giant of a man, big, hairy and ugly." And it's hard to argue with that. But what fascinates me most is his head. It's literally twice the size of Haye's head and looks like a large, unmoulded lump of clay. You could argue that Haye will have a bigger target to aim for. True. But he's got to reach it first. Haye's giving up a full nine inches to Valuev as well as seven stone in weight. That's probably more than the average supermodel. Still, you've got to say, it's going to be a fascinating encounter. I can imagine non-boxing fans tuning in purely for the circus sideshow-aspect of the fight. It's being called, somewhat unimaginatively, David vs Goliath, and this is probably the closest we'll get to witnessing something in that biblical ball park.
So all eyes will be on Nuremburg on November 7, and let's not forget that there's a real world title on the line.
And after a few false starts - most notably an aborted bout against Vitali Klitschko this summer - fight fans will get another chance to see Haye fighting at heavyweight next month. And not just any heavyweight but perhaps the heaviest of them all, the so-called Beast from the East, Nikolay Valuev. Standing 7ft 2 inches and weighing in at more than 23 stone, Valuev is, even by boxing standards, a freak of nature. Anyone tuning into the recent press conference may have been forgiven for thinking they'd stumbled across a David Attenborough documentary, because the fact is, and I'm not going to win any Russian friends by saying this, Valuev doesn't look human.
Haye told reporters: "He's a giant of a man, big, hairy and ugly." And it's hard to argue with that. But what fascinates me most is his head. It's literally twice the size of Haye's head and looks like a large, unmoulded lump of clay. You could argue that Haye will have a bigger target to aim for. True. But he's got to reach it first. Haye's giving up a full nine inches to Valuev as well as seven stone in weight. That's probably more than the average supermodel. Still, you've got to say, it's going to be a fascinating encounter. I can imagine non-boxing fans tuning in purely for the circus sideshow-aspect of the fight. It's being called, somewhat unimaginatively, David vs Goliath, and this is probably the closest we'll get to witnessing something in that biblical ball park.
So all eyes will be on Nuremburg on November 7, and let's not forget that there's a real world title on the line.
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