The new WBA Heavyweight Champion
Standing 7 feet tall, weighing over 320 pounds and hailing from St. Petersburg, Russia by way of Germany…Ladies and Gentlemen the NEW WBA Heavyweight Champion Nikolay Valuev.
Okay so I am browsing the sports pages on the internet and I just happen to comes across this article. I couldn’t believe he was the WBA Heavyweight Champion but after reading he beat John Ruiz I was sold. For quite a while I felt the heavyweight division lacked true heavyweights that were worth watching. Gone are the days of Ali vs. Foreman, Foreman vs. Frazier, Tyson vs. anybody, Holyfield vs. Lewis and the likes that wee in the heavyweight division. Now we have the welterweight, junior middleweight, middleweight and the crusierweight divisions us boxing fans our money’s worth.
The article stated this guy went pro in 1993 and has help both the Russian & Pan Asian Boxing Association Heavyweight Titles. And because of these accomplishments found himself in the WBA rankings in 2000. And now he is WBA Champion…Congrats. I wonder who the division will bring to challenge and win. Boy I can’t wait to see him in action.
Upon further study here are some other 7 foot fighters:
Charles Freeman:
Freeman, a bare-knuckle fighter known as “The American Giant,” had been billed as 7-foot-6 at some point, but was actually closer to 6-foot-10. He went to England in 1842 amid quite a buildup by the New York press, who ascribed a phony record to Freeman and touted him as a mammoth superathelete who would bring back the world championship.
Indeed, he competed against William “Not the Refrigerator” Perry, for what was hyped as the first world heavyweight championship under London Prize Ring rules (seems there were split titles even then). The fight, which had to be moved due to police intervention and resumed 10 days later, resulted in Perry going down in the 107th round without being hit by a blow.
Freeman eventually quit fighting, then became a stage actor and later a circus performer
Jim Cully:
Cully, the “Fighting Demon” out of Ireland, was 7-foot-4, limited in terms of ability, and recognized all by himself at one time as the world’s tallest prizefighter by the Guinness Book of Records. He fought in the U.S., and was rather unceremoniously disposed of in three rounds by Earl Pierce in May of 1948
Ewart Potgieter:
He was a 7-foot-2 South African known as the “Vrybum Giant.” He had at least 14 recorded pro fights, and was a serviceable type, having boxed to a 10-round draw in November of 1955 with James J. Parker, a capable heavyweight of the 1950s who had given top contender Nino Valdes quite a difficult time.
John Rankin:
Rankin was transformed into a fighter by opportunists who happened upon him when he was working as a hotel doorman in New Orleans. An African-American who stood 7-foot-4, weighed 300 pounds, wore a size 18½ shoe and had a reach of 90 inches, he was promoted as nothing more than a sideshow. In November of 1967, he scored a four-round decision in the Crescent City over Willie Lee, who was outweighed by 102¼ pounds.
Gogea Mitu:
A 7-foot-4, 330-pound Romanian, he had a limited number of fights that were recorded, but it is known that in 1935 he was knocked out in four rounds by George Godfrey, one of the leading black heavyweights of the ’20s and ’30s, who had a draw with an aging Sam Langford and wins over the likes of Paulino Uzcudun, Tiger Jack Fox and Jack Roper.
Gil Anderson:
Anderson, of Richmond, Calif., listed at 7 feet, had at least two fights in the Golden State in 1954, both knockout wins. The second fight was scheduled for eight rounds, indicating Anderson probably had more experience than that.
Luis Alberto Gonzalez:
Gonzalez came to Miami from Colombia in 1985. He stood just a shade over seven feet, and moved rather well in the ring for someone his size. However, his health was somewhat questionable even as he turned pro, and after running up six wins over opponents with a combined record of 2-23, he was discovered to have a heart murmur and was barred from fighting by the Florida commission.
Tom Payne:
Payne has become a tragic figure, although initially he was an historic one. The 7-foot-2 center was the first black basketball player ever signed by Adolph Rupp at the University of Kentucky and later participated in 29 games with the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks in the 1971-72 season. He was soon in trouble with the law, though, enduring the first of three rape convictions — all in different states. In between jail terms, he found the time to become a boxer, first in amateur competition (he was banned from Golden Gloves tournaments because he was too tall), and then as a pro, chalking up a 2-2 record from 1984-85. Payne is currently in prison for rape in his native Kentucky.
Carl “The Eclipse” Chancellor:
Chancellor a record-setting discus thrower in college, engaged in 11 pro fights between 1988-98, compiling a record of 3-6-2. Chancellor was 7-foot-1 and fought at a relatively svelte 296 pounds in 1989. But he eventually ballooned to well over 400 pounds. In fact, he officially weighed in at 430 pounds in July of 1993 when he lost a decision to Carl McGrew. He may have scaled at an even higher weight in his career, except that on at least one occasion, the local commission did not have an apparatus capable of recording that much poundage.
Mike “The Giant” White:
White was often said to be a 7-footer, but was actually 6-foot-10. The Michigan native fought a host of leading heavyweights, including Michael Moorer, Pierre Coetzer and Jorge Luis Gonzalez, and scored a come-from-behind, ninth-round TKO over former heavyweight champion Buster Douglas in December of 1983.
Marcellus Brown:
A 7-footer out of Benton Harbor, Mich. has fought world champions Tommy Morrison, Trevor Berbick and Lamon Brewster. Of his 15 pro losses, nine were knockout defeats in the first three rounds. Amazingly, Brown, who weighed 273 pounds for his last fight against Yanqui Diaz (September of 2004), weighed in at just 197 for a bout against John Morton in March of 1990.
Coincidentally, Morton went on to become the pro debut opponent for Valuev, making him one of a select group of boxers to have fought TWO seven-footers.
Julius Long:
The Detroit native, known as “The Towering Inferno,” is still active as a pro fighter. Standing at an even 7-foot, Long previously campaigned at around 270-280 pounds but more recently came down into the 230s. He sports a 14-7 record and holds a win over previously undefeated Russian Nicolay Popov. Long has also been beaten by the likes of Tye Fields, Rob Calloway, Leo Nolan and Audley Harrison. He is the brother of Grant Long, who played 15 years for five different NBA teams, and nephew of John Long, a 13-year NBA veteran, yet towers over both of those hoopsters.
Fernand Contat and Ted Evans:
Two other giants, if they had ever turned pro, would have, by all accounts, become record-setters. Contat, a French strongman of the 1930s, was said to be 7-foot-8 and 415 pounds, and trained to become a fighter, but never got into a bout. Perhaps promoters used him purely as a publicity gag or just couldn’t find anyone who would fight him.
Evans, a Brit, stood a reported 7-foot-6 and was actively in training to be a boxer in 1946. That never happened; Evans later became part of Ringling Bros. circus and died after making an appearance at Madison Square Garden in 1959.
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