By Mark Vester

Ruslan Chagaev, who tore his Achilles tendon in his left ankle last week and was forced to withdraw from a July 5 mandatory defense Nikolai Valuev in Germany, has been given an extension by the sanctioning body until the end of June 2009. Chagaev will have to defend his title by June 26 of next year against the mandatory challenger or face the possibility of being stripped.

The WBA has also cleared the way for Valuev to face John Ruiz in a sort of "interim" kind of fight where the winner would become in the champion in the event that Chagaav failed to fight them before June 26 of 2009.

All three men involved are very familiar with each other. Valuev won a majority-decision over Ruiz in 2005 to capture the title. He would then lose the title to Chagaev in 2007, also by majority decision. Chagaev also faced Ruiz in the past, beating him by split-decision in 2006 to earn the shot Valuev.

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