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Agree with people underestimating Chagaev, most probably because he's not American & had most of his big fights in Europe.
From what I've seen he's easily among the best challengers in the division, & would favour him over Briggs, Maskaev, Liakhovich, Brewster, Ibragimov, etc., with Peter a toss-up.
For those who haven't seen him, he's aggressive Southpaw with one-punch power, solid technique & very tough (you can find quite a few clips on YouTube).
His last fight was against Ruiz, & to almost all observers (apart from the one Puerto Rican judge) beat him convincingly, much more so than Valuev.
The fight before that he knocked out Michael Sprott in 8, & the fight before that was probably his toughest.
The fight was against Vladimir Virchis, a name you'll be hearing much more of in the coming year - a 6' 4½ Ukranian who came in with a 20-0 record with 18 KO's - Chagaev won via a majority decision.
Biggest problem technically that I've seen is that he tends to open himself up a little too much when aggressive, & tends to square himself up too much.
Biggest problem against Valuev is size.
Chagaev is 6' 1, & think his fighting weight is around 230.
That's about 11' in height & around 80 pounds in weight - Chagaev's good but good enough to overcome that???
Think it will be a good fight, with Chagaev hurting Valuev early, probably a number of times (he's got some sharp counter-punching skills & his power is impressive) & winning many of the early rounds, but think that Valuev's size, dtermination & chin will carry him through the rough patches, & he'll gradually assume control in the later rounds.
Pretty close decision victory for Valuev.
From what I've seen he's easily among the best challengers in the division, & would favour him over Briggs, Maskaev, Liakhovich, Brewster, Ibragimov, etc., with Peter a toss-up.
For those who haven't seen him, he's aggressive Southpaw with one-punch power, solid technique & very tough (you can find quite a few clips on YouTube).
His last fight was against Ruiz, & to almost all observers (apart from the one Puerto Rican judge) beat him convincingly, much more so than Valuev.
The fight before that he knocked out Michael Sprott in 8, & the fight before that was probably his toughest.
The fight was against Vladimir Virchis, a name you'll be hearing much more of in the coming year - a 6' 4½ Ukranian who came in with a 20-0 record with 18 KO's - Chagaev won via a majority decision.
Biggest problem technically that I've seen is that he tends to open himself up a little too much when aggressive, & tends to square himself up too much.
Biggest problem against Valuev is size.
Chagaev is 6' 1, & think his fighting weight is around 230.
That's about 11' in height & around 80 pounds in weight - Chagaev's good but good enough to overcome that???
Think it will be a good fight, with Chagaev hurting Valuev early, probably a number of times (he's got some sharp counter-punching skills & his power is impressive) & winning many of the early rounds, but think that Valuev's size, dtermination & chin will carry him through the rough patches, & he'll gradually assume control in the later rounds.
Pretty close decision victory for Valuev.
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