2.13 meters tall, most of the weight of more than 320 pounds Nikolai Warouyev is by far the highest altitude and largest weight champion in professional boxing, the "arena monster" from Russia won the WBA heavyweight title twice in the first 10 years of this century.
Born in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1973, Varuyev, a professional record of 50 wins and 2 defeats, was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, to local workers, and Varuyev is the only child in the family. Due to the disparity in height compared to children of the same age, Varouyev is considered a good seedling to engage in sports, before officially becoming a boxer, he tried a number of different sports, such as throwing discus, playing basketball, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Varouyev also interrupted his sports career, worked as a restaurant waiter, and went to the mountains to become a farmer, and later at the age of 20, Varuyev put on a boxing holster for the first time, he bluntly said that boxing saved his life.
Wearing huge American No. 18 sneakers, Varuyev only participated in 15 amateur games to become a professional boxer in 1993, during which time he traveled to many parts of the world, such as Germany, Japan, South Korea, the Czech Republic, etc., until he signed a contract with the famous German Sauerland Promotion Company, which was considered a turning point in Varuyev's career, and finally when December 2005 came, he defeated the "Silent Man" John Ruiz with a small number of points to win the WBA heavyweight boxing championship gold belt.
Later, Varuyev clashed with a number of famous boxers, and although he encountered setbacks during the period, such as the termination of the "White Tyson" Ruslan-Chabayev, he was recognized as a heavyweight of the period. In 2008, Varouyev defeated Ruiz again in the second game to regain the WBA champion gold belt, but lost the title to former world heavyweight champion David Haye a year later. After this battle, Varouyev announced his retirement and never returned.
One game in Varouyev's career that must be mentioned was the 2008 match against "Little Man" Ivan Hollyfield. Here, to say that Holyfield is a "small man", mainly relative to Varuyev, because the 1.89-meter old Ho, 24 centimeters shorter than Varuyev, in terms of weight is a huge gap, to know that Walluyev set the largest weight record in the heavyweight championship so far, in 2006 with Monte-Barrett, the weight reached 328 pounds, and earlier even had a weight of 333 pounds, so the sub-heavyweight rise of Holyfield, in front of Varuyev absolutely called "small".
However, although Varuyev was clearly superior in various indices, he was beaten very badly by the skilled and experienced Old Ho, who only relied on the referee to help win the victory, which was considered a "complete failure" to defend the title, and Varuyev knew this, and in an interview with the "Boxing Ring" magazine, he commented on the boxers he had played with one by one, especially for Holyfield, although old Ho was recognized as a weaker boxer by heavyweight, but in Walluyev's view, Holyfield's fist was the heaviest.
Varouyev said: "Holyfield gave me one of the toughest battles, he was very powerful, constantly hitting my ribs during the game, so that one of the ribs was fractured, so that I could not breathe normally for a month, it was a very unconventional punch, it was a heavy punch, Hollyfield kept throwing hook punches at me, and it was difficult to defend." ”
In addition, Varuyev regarded Hollyfield as the smartest and most comprehensive opponent. Varuyev said: "I lost to the smart people, such as Chabayev, Haye, but Hollyfield is the smartest of them, and at the same time the oldest." Hollyfield has excellent close-range attack ability, his speed, technique, and combination of punches are very balanced, and no one can compare with Hollyfield in terms of composite index. ”
Hollyfield is known to be considered one of the most technically outstanding boxers in the heavyweight class, and can even remove one, but when asked who is the most technically skilled boxer? Varuyev did not choose old Ho, saying: "Larry Donald is the most technical boxer I have ever met, his jab is one of the main weapons and he is better than anyone I have ever faced. ”
Donald is a heavyweight in the 1990s and early 2000s, who have played against big Klitschenko, Ridik Bowe and others, and won over Holyfield in 2004.
Varouyev spoke of the fastest, best defensive and hardest jaw opponent he had ever encountered. "The fastest is Haye, a heavyweight warrior with the speed of a lightweight boxer, faster than anyone else," Varouyev said. The best defensive is definitely Chabayev, who is a slippery left-hander and because Chabayev is so short, it's hard to hit the target. In terms of ability to resist blows, I can't remember special people, if I hit someone, they will fold, and the only boxer who can fight back with a fist is Ruiz, who has a hard, durable, and strong jaw. ”