Ruslan Chagaev, the WBA's mandatory challenger, overcame disadvantages of 11 inches in height and 91 pounds in weight by using subtle and circular movement, a decided advantage in hand speed, and an intelligent game plan to register an upset majority decision over previously undefeated WBA champion Nikolai Valuev (46-1-0-1 NC, 34 KO's).


In the early going Chagaev (now 23-0-1, 17 KO's) scored well with straight lefts while the towering Russian picked up points with his effective jab. As the bout prodgressed, Chagaev added solid body shots to his offense. Valuev kept moving forward but had increasing difficulty landing anything meaningful except his jab. His aggressiveness and his jab, however, allowed him to split the first 4 rounds with the challenger.


In the 5th through 7th rounds, Chagaev countered Valuev with solid lefts and made the champion miss more often, even with his jab.







Valuev was not discouraged and fought back, enjoying his best round of the fight in the 8th. He outscored Chagaev, landing his jab and solid right hands.


In the 9th round, Chageav and Valuev both had their moments with Chagaev landing lead and counter lefts and Valuev landing his jab and an occasional solid right as well.








The 10th round found Chagaev landing but without the snap his punches had earlier. The Russian Giant did not seem bothered at all by Chagaev's shots in the 11th round either but in the 12th round, when attempting to launch an effective attack, Valuev walked into a left that left him visibly shaken.


After 12 tactically entertaining rounds, the Uzbekistan-born "White Tyson" was declared the winner and new champion. Judge Stanley Christodoulou scored the bout 114-114 but was overruled by his fellow officials Hector Hernandez ans Chalerm Prayadsab whose respectve scores were 115-113 and 117-111.


In an undercard bout also televised by the MSG network, German heavyweight Rene Dettweiler (20-1, 10 KO's) was well ahead when his reluctant opponent Ivica Perkovic (11-7, 8 KO's) was disqualified in the 8th and final round for not fighting. Perkovic seemed only interested in going the distance. With no attempt to do anything but attain that goal, he left the referee no choice but to prevent him from doing so.





In the other bouts on the card, Oleg Platov (25-1, 21 KO's) knocked out Colin Wilson (33-20-0-1ND, 20 KO's) at 1:43 of the 10th round to retain the IBF Intercontinental heavyweight title; unbeaten Italian heavyweight Francesco Pianeta (10-0, 7 KO's) won an 8-round, split decision over his countryman Pablo Ferrara (23-11-1-1 NC, 7 KO's); unbeaten Germany-based Cuban cruiserweight Yoan Pablo Hernandez improved to 10-0 with 5 KO's with an 8-round, uanimous decision over Argentina's Hector Alfredo Avila (15-7-1, 11 KO's); welterweght contender Michel Trabant (43-2-0-1 NC, 19 KO's) unanimously outpointed Albert Starikov (8-7, 3 KO's) over 8 rounds; cruiserweight prospect Alexander Frenkel (8-0, 7 KO's) KO'ed Ferenc Zsalek (6-6, 1 KO) at 1:31 of the 1st round; 19-year-old super welterweight Dominick Britsch (5-0, 1 KO) won a unanimous decision over Karlheinz Scheibe (3-2, 0 KO's) in a 6-rounder; cruiserweight Lukasz Janik (3-0, 2 KO's) stopped Tomislav Juric Grgic (0-2) in the 2nd round; and heavyweight Andrzej Wawrzyk (5-0, 3 KO's) halted Ante Lovric (2-4, 0 KO's) at 1:04 of the 2nd round.