By Ruslan Chikov
Former world heavyweight champion Nikolai Valuev watched last Saturday's fight from Hamburg, Germany, where WBC champion Vitali Klitschko retained his title with a twelve round beating of Shannon Briggs. He tells Alexander Pavlov that Klitschko could have scored a knockout in the earlier rounds but he focused too much on the right hand and did not throw enough combinations in the contest. He thought Vitali's punches were too tight in the later rounds and had lost their power by the time he was connecting at will in the championship rounds.
In the case of Briggs, Valuev thought he put on too much from muscle from weight training and it made him appear very slow in the fight. Valuev noticed that Vitali kept his left hand very low in the fight. He's not surprised that Briggs was unable captilize on Klitschko's habit of keeping his left hand low, because he doesn't think Briggs would have ever been quick enough.
