Published: 3 June, 2009, 14:07
Edited: 3 June, 2009, 14:07
WBA heavyweight champ Nikolay Valuev says he wants to challenge the WBC belt holder Vitaly Klitschko, after his May 30 bout with Ruslan Chagev was cancelled, Sport-Express newspaper reports.
“Now I am going to strive for a fight with Vitaly Klitschko. Vitaly has my phone number. So if anything crops up we’ll be able to talk it over without any middleman,” Valuev said at a press-conference in Saint-Petersburg.
Vitaly Klitschko has not reacted to the Russian Giant’s words so far.
The Ukrainian made his return to the ring in 2008, after years out of the sport, to beat Nigerian Samuel Peter and win back the WBA title he owned before his retirement. He defended the belt in March 2009, knocking out Cuban Juan Carlos Gomez.
Vitaly is the elder brother of IBF and WBO champion Wladimir Klitschko.
Meanwhile, nothing is clear surrounding the canceled bout against Chagaev. The WBA is set to come up with a decision about it on Friday. In the meantime, the Federation has labeled Chagaev as “champion in recess” and Valuev – “champion”, but both boxers claim that they are the “real” champions.
Valuev and Chagaev fought on April 14, 2007, with the Uzbek boxer winning on points to relieve the Russian of his WBA title. The return match was cancelled twice, firstly because of a Chagaev injury.
But the Uzbek received a chance to face the reigning champion after recovering. Valuev claimed the vacant belt, beating Sergey Liakhovich from Belarus.
The Helsinki bout between was also called just hours before the boxers were to appear on the canvas, due to Chagaev being “unable to fulfill the Finnish Boxing Federation's medical requirements.” The media and Valuev’s camp believe the Uzbek fighter suffers from a hepatitis infection.
“Some times I think it would be better if Ruslan had broken something again. That at least can be cured, and we could’ve had our fight some day. But hepatitis is for life,” Valuev, who doesn’t want to risk his life by facing an infected rival, said.
And the war of words between the sides continues – answering the insult from Chagaev’s promoter Claus Peter Kohl, who called the 2.13-meter tall Valuev “the biggest and heaviest coward in the world”, the Russian boxer billed the Uzbek boxer as “the real world champion in finding excuses”, Bild newspaper reports.