One among strangers

Nikolai Valuev began the conquest of America

Nikolai Valuev began his performances in America with a victory. The grand show starring the Russian boxer, conceived by Don King, kicked off in Chicago, where WBA world champion Valuev defended his title by defeating Monte Barrett by technical knockout in the 11th round.

Monte Barrett, nicknamed “Two Smoking Barrels,” was destined for this fight to play the role of the guy whom Valuev was supposed to knock out, and as early as possible. This was exactly the plan for this fight by Don King, who, as always, with his flags (this time the USA and Russia) appeared in front of the cameras wherever he could get through. For him, who has lost all his heavyweight champions, the Russian is just the fighter from whom he can extract as much profit as possible at the moment. And the not very pleasant fact that, firstly, Valuev is not an American, and secondly, he is not black, forced King to advertise the fight more diligently.

As a result, his efforts were not in vain: the show, called “Big Red October,” was a success. Although at first Barrett did not at all agree with the fact that he was pre-recorded as “cannon fodder”. The American started the fight very actively and, despite problems in the first round, defended himself quite successfully until about the sixth bell. Only then did Valuev, from whom they expected a quick, easy victory, begin to take more active action. But the longer the battle dragged on, the more worried it became for the Russian. Barrett, of course, lost his advantage in speed with each round, but Nikolai was also tired.

Everything returned to normal in the eighth round, in which Valuev knocked down his opponent for the first time. But Monte Barrett decided to continue the fight and survived two more rounds. “He constantly got into my stomach,” Valuev explained why he failed to knock out his opponent earlier. “Unfortunately, not all forward blows hit the target. If I had managed to hit it more accurately, the battle could have ended earlier."

“To be honest, I underestimated the power of Nikolai’s blows,” the American admitted, in turn, after the fight, having had a chance to fully realize his mistake in the 11th round. Twice Barrett found himself on the canvas. But you have to give him credit: he got up twice. But the first knockout in the 11th round turned out to be decisive: after it, the American practically stopped resisting, missing one blow after another. But the referee was in no hurry to stop the fight. It is unknown how all this would have ended if coach Baretta had not run into the ring and with his own body would not have shielded his boxer from Valuev’s gloves, stopping the fight early.

“Today I was not able to reveal all my capabilities,” Nikolai Valuev remained dissatisfied with the fight. “Perhaps the unusual situation affected my form. It was very different from the one that reigned during the boxing evenings in Germany, where I fought my last fights. In America before the fight the situation was more tense. We did a lot of interviews. Even during preparation for the fight, reporters did not leave our locker room. We must not forget that I have not performed in the USA for a long time. Maybe that’s why I was a little tight in the ring.”

Now Valuev will have to get used to America. He became the second Russian heavyweight champion, after Oleg Maskaev, to decide on title fights in the United States. However, Maskaev decided to “move” to Moscow, and now Nikolai, according to Don King’s idea, should become the favorite of the Americans: if America cannot make its own world champion, it should buy him. Andrey VDOVIN