“To sacrifice something means to deprive oneself of something voluntarily, for the benefit of other or other species. By sacrificing the ruble, he gained thousands ... ”One of the interpretations of the concept of“ victim ”according to Dahl’s dictionary is the best suited for the signage of this battle. Not in the center of the bright poster, of course, but somewhere below the pathos “Red October” and “King Kong is back” - in small letters, which rarely anyone notices, but which make much more sense.
Despite the fact that Valuev will certainly be the main character of the upcoming battle at the Allstate Arena in Chicago, for a start we will pay attention to his opponent. Contender for the championship belt, 35-year-old Monte Barrett spent 35 fights in the professional ring, scoring 31 victories (17 knockouts). The American is distinguished by a high (in comparison with Valuev, of course, relatively) height - 191 cm, an aggressive style of warfare and the ability to equally well beat with both hands, for which he was nicknamed the "Double-barreled shotgun". On this, perhaps, the enumeration of Barrett's strengths can be completed and not really admire what happened. A good boxer, but no more. The last time Barrett entered the ring on August 13 last year and lost by unanimous decision of the judges the fight for the title of interim world champion according to the World Boxing Council (WBC) compatriot Hasim Rahman. It is all the more surprising that the next fight after the defeat, he holds as a contender for the champion title - a luxury that allows only stumbled superstars. It is here because of the back of the boxers that the famous hair of the “great and terrible” American promoter Don King becomes visible, on a contract which has both heroes of the upcoming show.
Trained in boxing for more than a dozen years, billionaire King simply could not stay away from such a phenomenon as Nikolai Valuev. I’m sure the Valuev logical chain - the show - the money at the first sight of Nikolai was built in the head of the American and turned into a target faster than he had time to blink. And when Valuev’s cautious words about the claims for the championship title were still arousing a smile for many in Russia, King already transferred money to the German promotion company Sauerland Events for part of the rights to the Russian boxer. As a result, in all the last three battles of Nicholas, which were invariably victorious, his rivals were exclusively King's clients, who apparently decided to act on the principle: if the monster is not defeated, it is better to make friends with him.
On the eve of the upcoming battle, Nicholas hosted an unprecedented promotion in the United States, comparable in scale and financial costs only with the promotion of Mike Tyson when he was a client of King. Valuev traveled to New York, Chicago, Los Angeles. He attended the duel of Samuel Peter and James Toney, the US Open Tennis Championships, multimillionaire Donald Trump, held a press conference on the roof of the third tallest building in America “Sears Tower” and talked with ordinary Americans, many of whom even got acquainted with the kind smile of a Russian boxer still looked at him as a snowman descending from the mountains. But such an effect does not bother the organizers of the battle, on the contrary. To see how his boyfriend will try to defeat the Giant, an obsessed with myths and wounded by the latest failures in boxing America will come, without stint, again and again. And King, in turn, will spare nothing for the growing popularity of the Russian boxer. Indeed, the organization of this fight, its entertainment, box office largely depends on whether the American promoter will receive all the rights to Valuev, who ends the Sauerland Events contract at the end of this year.
And all this unambiguous vanity around Nikolai on the eve of the battle is rather alarming. The trainer of the Russian boxer Manvel Gabrielyan has already stated that the preparation for the fight “didn’t work according to the planned scenario, since we only had to go from place to place, and there was very little time left for training”. But now it’s even more important how much Valuev himself will withstand psychologically this burden of popularity, which he very soberly and accurately described in one of the last interviews: “I have not been a child for a long time. All this was provided to me, because they need something from me. As soon as I stop being interesting, all this will disappear. It looks like a beautiful wrapper of bitter candy. But I want to become the absolute world champion and ensure myself and my family a decent life, so now I must accept their rules of the game. "
Andrey IVANTSOV