WBA champion Nikolai Valuev won a majority points decision against four-time world champion Evander Holyfield on Saturday to end the American's hopes of becoming the oldest ever title-holder. Holyfield, 46, made use of his greater mobility and experience to confound those who had criticized the supposedly one-sided nature of the bout, with one of the three judges even awarding him a draw. However, the other two sided with Valuev, who had controlled most of the fight with some solid but unspectacular jabs, giving the 2.13-meter tall Russian victory by 116-112 and 115-114 points. “I saw it the other way from the judges but I'm not disappointed by my performance,” Holyfield said. “He's a tough opponent, the sheer size of him is of course the main factor but he fights well with it too and that's the problem.” Holyfield, who entered the ring a staggering 44 kilos lighter than Valuev as well as being 11 years his senior, was the clear favorite of the Swiss crowd and there were loud boos when the decision was announced. Despite a lively start and some late lunges in the last two rounds, the former champion was generally unable to trouble the Russian. Valuev had plenty of chances to make the fight even more one-sided but failed to land more than a few glancing blows on two or three occasions when Holyfield left himself open. By the eighth round, Holyfield appeared to be tiring, allowing Valuev to take steady control of the fight before fending off the American's late attempts to swing the contest his way. Skelton claims Euro title British boxer Matt Skelton landed the vacant EBU European heavyweight crown on Friday night in Milan after Italian Paolo Vidoz retired on his stool at the end of the ninth of 12 scheduled rounds. The 41-year-old from Bedford improved his record to 22 wins, including 19 inside the distance, and just two defeats while 38-year-old Vidoz drops to 25-6. Commonwealth champion Skelton was fighting for the first time since dropping a unanimous decision to then WBA champion Ruslan Chagaev of Uzbekistan in a world title fight in January. Vidoz is a former European title holder having claimed the belt off German Timo Hoffmann by split decision in 2005.
