Ruslan Chagaev failed a “medical requirement” on Friday, forcing his challenge for Nikolai Valuev’s WBA heavyweight title to be called off a day before the fight.
Finnish officials said: “Chagaev has been unable to fulfill the Finnish Boxing Federation’s medical requirements,” and gave no further details.
“It was a big shock for us today,” said Wilfried Sauerland, Valuev’s manager.
Local media reports said Chagaev had a hepatitis infection and that all 11 bouts on the card were canceled.
Federation president Pertti Augustin and press spokesman Pekka Kaidesoja refused to offer explanations, saying “it’s against Finnish law to do so.”
Undefeated Chagaev would have netted 55 percent of the US$2.8 million purse.
It’s the third rematch between the pair that’s failed to start since Chagaev gave the 2.14m Russian his only pro defeat by decision in April 2007. The previous two rematches were called off because Chagaev ruptured an Achilles tendon in training.
After Chagaev, as WBA titleholder, withdrew from the two scheduled rematches he was named “champion in recess,” and the WBA vacated the title.
But because of his status, Chagaev has to fight Valuev by the end of next month.
Chagaev’s status remained unclear on Friday.
“It’s a decision that the board of the directors of the WBA has to make,” WBA official George Martinez said. “We will meet as soon as possible and address the problem. We have to collect all the facts and in a proper time we’ll make a decision.”
Valuev won the vacant title last August by beating American John Ruiz in Berlin. Four months later, he defended the title against 46-year-old Evander Holyfield, who had arrived in Helsinki earlier on Friday for the scheduled bout dubbed “The Revenge of the Giant.”
Chagaev returned from his injuries in February and won a technical decision over Carl Davis Drumond at Rostock, Germany — the Uzbekistan-born boxer’s first fight in more than a year.
Yesterday’s scheduled bout,at 15,000-sear Hartwall Arena would have been only the second world title fight in the Finnish capital.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier