Valuev's Interview on 12/26/2005

This is an interview of Valuev with readers of the "Soviet Sport" - one of the oldest and most credible Russian sports newspaper. Translated by yours truly. I will not put names of callers or cities they were calling from. -Nikolay, where was your signature right hand when you were fighting John Ruiz? Why were you using it so rarely? -(Displeased) I'm was not about to tell everybody that I had an injury right before the fight. Please don't publish this. This is not the type of injury to mull over. I've seen people with broken bones to an extend where you could see their bones but they were in the ring the very next day. -Hello Nicolay, this is... I congratulate you with earning the belt, you only have five more fights to repeat the record or Rocky Marciano - 49 straight wins without losses. -Really! I didn't even think about that. Thank you very much. -Nicolay, Ruiz cannot be named a very technical boxer but if you will be fighting Klitschko, for example, he will be constantly moving away from you after he punches you with 1-2 punches. -Yes, I know, we already thought about that. We will develop our strategy for Klitschko. Don't worry, we will consider this factor. -Hello. When are you going to fight Holyfield? -There is a possibility of that. We wanted to organize that fight. But, here is the problem: Holyfield cannot fight in the US. He can, however, fight in Germany. Therefore, theoretically, there is a possibility of this fight happening. -Nicolay, you are constantly in the spotlight after your fight with Ruiz. Did you have a chance to rest? You were planning to go hunting. -No, I didn't have a chance to rest yet. Didn't have a chance to go hunting either, maybe I'll go on Wednesday for a couple of days. -Did it irritate you that German public started booing after the results were announced? -Yes, it did. But I saw judges' scorecards and believe that I won the fight. Yes, the difference was not significant but I was better. You know, lately public is booing after my fights but it's understandable - I am a lot bigger than my opponents, outweigh them by 90 pounds, and I can only avoid boos by knocking my opponents out but that did not happen in my last two fights. Therefore I understand people's reaction. Of course it irritates me.