Valuev: Klitschko vs. Haye Was a Much Closer Fight

By Ruslan Chikov

Former WBA heavyweight champion Nikolai Valuev felt the three judges who were assigned to last Saturday's big heavyweight unification in Hamburg, Germany, were far too generous with WBA/WBO/IBF/IBO champion Wladimir Klitschko. Reporter Alexander Pavlov quotes Valuev as stating in his recent blog that Klitschko was indeed the correct winner, but the actual fight was a lot close than the actual scorecards. The scores were 118-108, 117-109 and 116-110.

"I believe that Klitschko won deservedly. But the truth is, he only won by a narrow margin. The judges' scores were clearly too high. Wladimir won the fight, and he was more active during the second half of the contest, but he only won by a small margin," Valuev said.