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Chronicle
Representatives of American heavyweight John Ruiz demand that the World Boxing Association cancel the results of the fight for the interim world title, lost by their ward to Russian Nikolai Valuev. In Berlin on August 30, all three referees awarded victory to the Russian boxer, but now Ruiz’s managers intend to achieve a re-fight.
According to RIA Novosti, all the claims of Ruiz's team are related to the refereeing. Firstly, according to the American’s managers, Valuev’s seconds during the fight had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the contents of the judges’ notes, which is prohibited by the rules. Secondly, side judge Takeshi Shimakawa kept the score incorrectly throughout the fight, which he himself admitted, initially giving the victory to Ruiz, and then correcting his decision. Third, another judge, Antonio Requena, scored a draw in two rounds, contrary to WBA instructions that there should be no tied round scores in title matches. In addition, the American side believes that Valuev was knocked down in the second round, but the referee in the ring believed that the Russian simply slipped and did not open the scoring. Thus, Ruiz's team demands to be provided with a full video of the fight and insists on the annulment of its results.
The leader changes again at the Vuelta
After a rare day at the Spanish Vuelta cycling race, the leader remains unchanged. The ninth stage, 200 kilometers long between the cities of Viela and Sabignanigo, was no exception. Long before the finish line, a fairly decent gap had formed, in which the Spaniard Egue Martinez, who became the new leader of the general classification, was riding. It was not he who won the stage, but the Belgian van Avermaet, who escaped his pursuers at the finish line with a powerful jerk. However, the advantage Martinez gained in isolation from the main peloton was enough to get ahead of the American Levi Leipheimer and Alberto Contador from Astana.
By the way, yesterday there were rumors that the Astana team is ready to invite Lance Armstrong, who has won the most prestigious cycling race in the world seven times, to the upcoming Tour de France. At 36 years old, Armstrong is supposedly ready to return to professional sports, and Astana is ready to help him with this. However, within a few hours, these rumors were denied by the team’s press attaché Philipp Mertens: “We did not have and do not have plans to attract Lance to the team. We are not going to cooperate with him. As far as I know, he has no plans to return to the highway either.”
However, The Guardian reports that Lance Armstrong has again submitted an application to WADA America for out-of-competition testing. According to the rules, if an athlete plans to resume his career, he must register with WADA six months before the start of the competition.