12.05.05 – By Izyaslav “Slava” Koza: The build up to heavyweight Nicolai Valuev’s big break seems to be drawing nearer and nearer. On Saturday, May 14th, the little known giant will step into the ring against a black Rhinoceros from the bayou, in Clifford Etienne. Amidst the build up to this fight, several sources including famed trainer Emanuel Steward, have hinted that should Valuev be successful against Ettiene, and there is a good possibility of a future fight that will be televised on HBO.. This is good news considering Valuev has had trouble finding decent “recognizable” opponents for a couple of months.
Late last year in an interview Valuev was talking about facing either Ray Austin, Micheal Grant, or Lawrence Clay Bey, in a fight scheduled for February 2005. Once that date rolled around, Swede, Attila Levin was the one stepping up to the plate, and striking out horribly, as Valuev found his aggressiveness early, and sent Levin down to the canvas three times en route to a 3rd round TKO.
A possible televised fight on April 23rd on the Wladimir Klitschko undercard, fell through after Valuev injured his back, and had to move his next bout to May 14th. The opponent: formerly decent heavyweight, Clifford Etienne. Now the fan outcry has been very negative, because of the fact that Etienne, has an obvious chin deficiency. After being Knocked out by Tyson in the time it takes someone to go to the bathroom, Ettiene left the sport for a short while. He returned against current top 10 contender, Calvin Brock, Etienne again showed bad form, losing in 3 rounds.
Personally, I think Etienne is a fine contender for what he essentially is, a tune-up. Etienne has only lost to good heavyweights (again by current standards) in the division up to this point, including the above mentioned Tyson, Brock (who just beat Mccline), and Oquendo (who unofficially beat Chris “I’m afraid of fighting good opponents” Byrd). If Valuev handles Etienne, the way these men do then it says something about his ability to do what the good fighters do. To add to this thought, remember nobody else was willing to fight him.
Valuev’s promoter Saureland recently mentioned in an interview that the proposed opponents for February fell through, because they all backed out of a fight with Valuev for various reasons. Its not an issue of what most people think is Valuev maneuvering his way through some maze ducking opponents while trying to secure a title shot, because according to Sauerland the amount Etienne will be making for this fight, far exceeds that of anything he would make here, which is why he took the fight. The guy is being paid more then he is worth to fight Valuev, which says something about how hard it is to get a good fighter in the ring.
The common misconception is that the guy with the perfect record is the one trying to duck everybody, and that is simply not true. Americans fighters who have tasted defeat are reluctant to put themselves at risk, especially with no TV exposure, and an unknown opponent who if they lose to, makes them “done and over the hill.” Grant, Austin, and Clay Bey, are better off waiting it out for a chance to fight on American soil, most likely against a King fighter, with a good chance of getting on TV. Now I am not saying that they are bad guys or cowards, because I can understand the mentality of it, seeing as it is a way for them to make a living, and they have to protect that first and foremost. However, at the same time, I don’t think its fair that the public sees the Valuev camp as trying to duck everyone when that is clearly not the case.
Etienne was a decent fighter before the Oquendo loss, and still has those skills, so besides his chin being an issue, he is a decent challenge. Furthermore, Valuev plans to fight veteran Henry Akinwande, in July provided he wins against Etienne on Saturday. So besides being active against three semi-decent American opponents, that will be Valuev’s 3rd fight in 6 months, which, by the way, includes time spent recouping from an injury.
I think that that Akinwande would be great match up, seeing as he has had trouble of finding the right fights himself. Remember that Akinwande has only ever lost to McCall and Lewis, and was leading against McCall at the time of the stoppage, while being disqualified, not knocked out against Lewis for excessive holding. He had a good win over decent German fighter, Timo Hoffman, not too long ago, and has always had a weird Ruiz-like style of fighting (hence the disqualification loss against Lewis). Now, the only problem I see with Akinwande as an opponent is his age, considering the guy is 40 years old. However in his last 2 outings, he has fought 12 and 10 round bouts respectively, so I don’t think stamina will affect that fight if it happens.
Now, what a fight like that does for Valuev is give him an idea of how a match with soon to be reinstated champ John Ruiz will go. Ruiz after being thoroughly outclassed by overweight James Toney, and getting his belt back on a technicality, will unlikely abandon his jab and grab style if he is forced to meet the bigger Valuev. Also, with Valuev being ranked high in the WBA rankings, it is likely that a win against Ettiene will give the WBA enough proof to consider him for a title eliminator against a more dangerous opponent than Akinwande. In this case, if he is victorious in both this and the Etienne fight Saturday, he could challenge for the title by the end of the year.
In my opinion, I think it’s about time that we got some new meat fighting for the Heavyweight title. Needless to say, everybody is sick and tired of Ruiz, as well as Chris Byrd, who by the way, again chose to duck Wladimir Klitschko after Byrd’s potential fight with Toney fell. Instead, Byrd opted to fight Sergei Lyakhovich, who in my eyes, while a decent fight, is not as promising as Byrd-Klitschko would have been.
With Vitali’s annoying habit of getting injured, and Toney’s problems with the WBA, that leaves us with Lamon “Homer Simpson” Brewster, fighting a guy in Golota, who has gotten 3 title shots in a row, even though he never did anything to earn the first one, in my eyes. The only decent fight that is up on the horizon is Monte Barrett vs. Hasim Rahman, but between them, these guys have something like 8 losses, so I really don’t know what the winner of that fight can offer in terms of becoming a unified champ.
The future heavyweights are our only hope, and we have to look to guys like Calvin Brock, (who has already faced adversity and come out on top against Jameel McCline) Sam Peter, who has the Tyson-like style, and Valuev, who as far as I am concerned, has the best work ethic in the heavyweight division today. The guy is over 300 pounds, and yet still comes in shape and focused for all of his fights, even though there is no weight limit for the heavyweights. I sincerely hope that he succeeds because with him as champ, it seems to me we can resurrect the heavyweights again.