An unusual child
Valuev was 30-40 centimeters taller than his school peers. His height in first grade was 1 meter 60 centimeters (the boy was taller than the class teacher). In the sixth, the boy left even the high school students behind: 1 meter 96 centimeters. Nikolai grew up agile, strong, but at the same time calm and kind.
Thanks to my father, I fell in love with fishing and learned to read the classics for the rest of my life. Valuev Jr. always considered his dad an indisputable authority. He was a very respectable and good-natured man. By his own example, he taught his son not to enter into conflict, even in a difficult situation, but with considerable self-irony (in the words of the classic) to “laugh out of trouble.”
Introduction to sports
In the 80s, many parents sent their children to sports clubs. Nikolai began his journey into big-time sports with basketball, then took up athletics. In the 7th grade, a guy with obvious talent went to study at the Leningrad sports boarding school No. 62. While studying and participating in competitions, he became a prize-winner of the USSR championship in discus throwing.
However, neither the well-deserved sports titles nor the coaching diploma received by the future champion in the 90s promised the future champion any special prospects in life.
At this stage, Nikolai Valuev happily avoided the dangerous temptation (dubious people tried to attract an athlete with a textured appearance to participate in “shooters.”) Fortunately, fate soon gave him a more realistic chance to make a decision in life.
Biography
Nikolai Aleksandrovich Valuev was born on August 21, 1973 in Leningrad. The boy was born 51 centimeters tall and at first was no different from other babies. However, even in preschool age, little Kolya began to rapidly overtake his peers in physical development. Valuev spent all his free time from studying on the street. In the evenings he liked to read adventure literature and many times he got into funny stories because of his impressive data.
In the 7th grade, Kolya entered a sports boarding school. Life has become scheduled minute by minute. Strict daily routine. The tall boy tried his hand at basketball, but soon switched to athletics, to which he devoted 7 years.
“Besides being tall, I didn’t have any data or talent.” - Nikolai Valuev. 2020
In athletics, Valuev achieved good results in two disciplines: discus throwing (prizewinner of the USSR championship) and shot put. To develop performance in these elements, Nikolai had to develop explosive strength. He performed various jumps. I ran short distances. I trained with a group of wrestlers. It was at that distant time that Valuev first became acquainted with boxing. He took several lessons from a local trainer, who showed the Russian giant the correct stance and basic types of strikes.
In the 90s, the young guy’s impressive stats (height - 213 centimeters, arm span - 216 centimeters) aroused the interest of some criminal structures. Nicholas received several offers to work for influential authorities of that time. Always calm and reserved, the young man tried to keep his distance from illegal business activities.
Valuev took up boxing seriously at the age of 20. His first coach, Oleg Shalaev, recognized extraordinary talent in him. However, the first steps in boxing were very difficult. The aspiring boxer was critical of his first successes. Nikolai had 10 fights in the amateur ring and won all of them.
“There are no miracles. I never managed to become fast and technical. Every mistake and wrong move is noticeable because of my height.” - Nikolai Valuev. 2020
First boxing lessons
At the invitation of coach Oleg Shalaev, Nikolai Valuev, who was out of work, came to the boxing section. The athlete’s height at that time reached its highest point - 2 meters 13 centimeters. It was the anthropometry of a basketball player rather than a fighter.
Boxing, for a calm, non-conflict guy, initially turned out to be stressful. For Valuev, throughout his boxing career, the problem of the first strike was significant. Coaches told him more than once: “First they’ll hit you, and then you start fighting!” Nikolai Valuev was forced to overcome his character and learn to defend himself. His fighting style organically began “on defense.” Even then, it became clear to his coach Oleg Shalaev: Nikolai would continue to demonstrate such boxing. Valuev has always been distinguished by his sportive spirit and gentleness in the ring.
This first stage of his career left its mark on the life of the future champion. At the very first training sessions, he was paired with an international master of sports, who forever “gave” the champion a mark - a broken nose. Looking ahead, let's say that 11 years of cooperation connected boxer Nikolai Valuev with coach Oleg Shalaev. During this time, the newcomer entered the top ten best heavyweights in the world.
Childhood and family of Nikolai Valuev
The parents of the future talented athlete did not suspect that their only son would have such extraordinary physical characteristics. At birth, his height was quite normal - 52 centimeters. But while still a preschooler, Nikolai began to rapidly outstrip his peers in height.
Sports coaches did not miss the opportunity to use his unique qualities and attracted him to basketball, where height gives advantages in the fight for victory. He became the national champion in this sport among junior boys, being a student of the honored coach of Russia Anatoly Steinbock.
Nikolai Valuev in the army
However, over time, it turned out that rapid growth negatively affected the coordination of the teenager’s movements and physical strength - the ability to withstand fatigue, endurance. So he switched to athletics, namely hammer throwing. And in this type of sports competition, Valuev achieved success - in a stubborn struggle he earned the title of Master of Sports.
In the professional ring
In the very first year of his boxing lessons, Nikolai Valuev was supposed to go to his first professional boxing tournament in Germany. However, two days before the fight, his dad died of heart disease. The athlete promised his family to dedicate his first fight to his father.
The career of the Russian professional boxer began with a resounding victory over his opponent. On the eve of the fight with the experienced John Mortan (40 professional fights), Nikolai did not sleep, and after the fight his temperature rose.
In the same year, Nikolai won silver at the championships in St. Petersburg and Russia. From 1994 to 1996, the athlete had only five fights in the professional ring, but unimportant ones, since his opponents were unrated.
“There is no brain cancer”
Boxing
At Epiphany, Valuev swam in an ice hole with a heating system
01/20/2019 At 20:07
The 45-year-old ex-boxer denied publications about cancer in a commentary for the Komsomolskaya Pravda branch from St. Petersburg. “There is no brain cancer. I don’t have it, I didn’t say that. It's acromegaly, not cancer. Do cancer patients really go out like I do? Someone blurted out, and now everything is being rewritten,” said Valuev, who was talking with a Komsomolskaya Pravda correspondent against the backdrop of a noisy party.
The diagnosis has been going on since 2013 - Nikolai boxed with David Haye, lost to him in a 12-round fight and went for a medical examination.
“And then the news started pouring in. I had to undergo surgery on a topic I didn’t even know about. She predetermined his departure from boxing. If I could somehow cope with my shoulder, hand, and knees, then here they corrected a genetic anomaly. Anomaly in the head. Benign tumor. About a pea. Or with an acorn. The operation lasted five hours.
Nikolai Valuev – David Haye
Photo: Getty Images
It turned out that I have a rather rare thing that sooner or later leads to death. Premature, of course. Do you understand the pros and cons I was weighing? Theoretically, it was possible to practice boxing. But I thought: I have a family. If the operation is postponed, it will get worse. To turn into a plant in the arms of my relatives - do I need that?!” – Valuev said in 2013 in an interview with Sport Express.
About the wedding of Nikolai Valuev
In 1998, he met his future wife. By chance, they were seated next to each other at a party held by mutual friends. The cheerful girl began to look after the “biggest boxer in the world” at the table, treating him first to one dish, then to another... The young people began to meet. At that time, Nikolai lived with his coach and promoter. He could meet with Galina only on Thursdays and on weekends.
Valuev’s wife says with a smile that she personally never received a marriage proposal from the future champion; instead, Nikolai invited her dad to the bathhouse, where he announced that he would marry his daughter. Coming out of the bathhouse, the men, to the surprise of the ladies, began seriously planning the wedding. By the way, on the second day after the celebration, Nikolai and his father-in-law went hunting...
Secrets of the personal life of Nikolai Valuev
The famous athlete and parliamentarian is happily married to his wife Galina.
The couple has a daughter and two sons - Irina, Grigory and Sergei. As it turned out during the program “The Invisible Man” on channel TV-3, the heroes of which were the Valuevs last year, the wife, despite her height of 163 centimeters, dominates the family. It is known that one of Nikolai’s main hobbies is hunting. But during the broadcast, many of his unexpected traits were also revealed - vulnerability, sentimentality, the presence of complexes regarding his appearance.
Separately, Nikolai’s fidelity in terms of his relationship with his beloved woman was emphasized. Family and close people are the most important thing in life for him. Perhaps this was the involuntary reason for the well-known fact of his fight in the parking lot when Galina was driving. The incident resulted in serious injuries to a security guard at Spartak Sports Complex and criminal proceedings. TV show experts also noted that the ex-fighter in life often had to prove his worth to others. Today the Valuev family owns several apartments in Russia, two in Germany, a house, cars and boats.
Relationships that have passed all tests
The years 2002-2003 became a real test for the Valuev family. Due to the position of Nikolai’s manager at the time (he did not allow him to compete), the boxer remained unemployed for a long time; for several years they did not have money even for basic necessities. After a couple of months, almost all friends, except for one single neighbor, stopped lending money to the Valuevs. It is characteristic that during all those difficult months, Valuev’s wife, Galya, never reproached her husband.
Subsequently, already performing in Germany under the leadership of Wilfird Sauerland, Nikolai repaid his debts to friends who had previously helped out his family (at that time Nikolai already had his first son, Grisha),
Professional contract
On July 26, 2004, the Russian boxer became the WBA intercontinental champion. The victory, which had a clear advantage, was overshadowed by Nikolai’s not entirely “clean” blow to the back of the head of the Nigerian Bango. However, the referee did not notice him.
Soon, boxer Nikolai Valuev signed a contract with an American boxing company. The Russian had to fight his first championship fight in December 2005 in Germany. The legendary champion Mohamed Ali was also among the audience at the fight.
The Russian faced a difficult and “sticky” opponent - John Ruiz, who stubbornly opposed him throughout all 12 rounds. This battle had its own drama. Nikolai Valuev, being right-handed, fought with an unhealed fracture of his right hand. Therefore, the Russian athlete fought, essentially, “with one left hand” and, in spite of everything, managed to win on points.
Subsequently, the Russian champion successfully defended the high title three times. However, on April 14, 2007, he was selected by the Uzbek boxer Ruslan Chagaev.
Then Chagaev was injured, and, according to WBA rules, Valuev had to have a rematch for the title of “interim champion” with John Ruiz. In this fight, which took place on August 30, 2008, the Russian confidently won. On December 20, 2008, Nikolai defended the title in a fight against the eminent challenger Evander Holyfield.
In 2009, Valuev officially received the WBA heavyweight champion title. On November 7, 2009, he lost it, having been defeated by the British David Haye.
In total, during his career in the professional ring, boxer Nikolai Valuev fought fifty fights. Of these, he won 48, including becoming a two-time super heavyweight champion. He met different opponents. If a boxer finished his first fights in 2 rounds, then professional battles required dedication and left injuries. It is obvious that Valuev experienced difficulties in fights with fast and technical punchers. Height and weight affected the athlete’s mobility and reaction.
Our hero had his own tradition: before the battle, Nikolai Valuev invariably went to his small homeland to stand at his father’s grave.
Nikolai Valuev is known to operatives as Kolya the sledgehammer
; , 'photoWmd' , 'top=0,left=0,width=565, height=720, status=0,resizable=1,scrollbars=1,toolbar=0');return false;" href=»#»>Andrey Bilzho. Cartoons on the topic; target=”_blank”>The collision between world boxing champion Nikolai Valuev and a security guard at the Spartak sports complex in St. Petersburg, after which the guard ended up in the hospital, somewhat damaged the boxer’s reputation. Now law enforcement agencies must decide whether to initiate criminal proceedings against him. Meanwhile, as Izvestia found out, this is not the first clash between Valuev and the police. In the databases of the Organized Crime Control Department of the early 90s, he appeared under the nickname Kolya the Sledgehammer. According to the operatives who worked at that time, he did not take an active part in security actions - he was taken rather as a factor of intimidation. However, one day, as part of a criminal investigation into extortion, Valuev had to spend several days in a cell. Everyone can be convinced that Nikolai Sergeevich Valuev, born in 1973 and nicknamed Kolya the Sledgehammer, has been in the operational database of the St. Petersburg Department for Combating Organized Crime since the early 90s. It is enough to buy a CD with the base for 200 rubles - they are sold in almost any St. Petersburg market. In addition, in 1994, Valuev miraculously avoided charges of extortion. Izvestia managed to find one of the victims in that old criminal case. This is a former representative of a German company that worked in the real estate market in St. Petersburg. According to him, in 1994, through threats and violence, one of the apartments was actually taken away from the company. “To our company, like everyone else in the early 90s, representatives of various “security structures” constantly tried to impose “services to protect them from trouble,” a former victim told Izvestia. — Following the principle of the German founder, we refused. In March 1994, the so-called “athletes” came. They introduced themselves as buyers of the apartment and began to finalize the deal, but when it was time to go to the bank, they simply put us in a car and drove us away in an unknown direction. They demanded that the apartment be re-registered in the name of their people. That’s when I saw Valuev: a huge man sitting silently next to us in the back seat. As I learned later, he was supposed to stop our attempts to get out of the car. It was difficult for a student at the Lesgaft Institute of Physical Education with the appearance of a “mountain man” (213 centimeters, 147 kilograms) to avoid participating in security actions. As operatives of the St. Petersburg Organized Crime Control Department told Izvestia, 20-year-old Valuev was used more than once by his friends as a “figure of intimidation.” Sometimes one glance at the giant was enough for an opponent to stop being an opponent. Thus, without ever using his fists, he earned the nickname Kolya the Sledgehammer. “We gave in to the extortionists in everything,” continues the former victim. — Since the company was German, its management acted in German, and not in Russian, traditions. That is, they agreed to everything, signed everything, and gave away the apartment. Later we contacted the German consulate. And the FRG Consul General already called the FSB... After this call, the investigation began with incredible efficiency, and in a matter of days the police detained the alleged extortionists. Nikolai Valuev was detained in the office of the private security company "Akonit" along with two employees of the private security company. The latter were partly prepared for such a turn of events, but for Valuev the detention, placement in a cell, interrogations and identification became a real shock. At the same time, operatives recall that the athlete was very tormented by the fact that he might miss training. For three days at the police station, Valuev remained gloomily silent. He couldn’t show anything on the merits of the matter - he really didn’t know anything. They believed him: during the alleged extortion, the giant, as the victim said, “sat silently.” In addition, Valuev, employees of the Organized Crime Control Department say, had defenders - professional athletes who saw in the giant the hope of Russian boxing. And three days later the boxer was released without charges being brought against him. And in 1995, the criminal case itself was dropped. “Apparently, due to the “international” nature of the case, it went beyond the usual seizure of property for the extortionists,” recalls the failed victim, “they returned the apartment to our company.” After this, the applicants, of course, did not go anywhere, did not demand anything, did not complain about anything. That's why the case was stopped. Commenting to Izvestia on the events of 12 years ago, Nikolai Valuev was very brief: he was already sitting on a plane ready to fly to Germany. The world champion did not deny that in the early 90s he actually participated several times in the actions of his acquaintances from Aconit LLP, and in 1994 he was detained along with them on suspicion of extortion. “But I never raised my hand to anyone or said a rude word,” Nikolai Valuev told Izvestia. — As for the nickname Kolya the Sledgehammer, this is the first time I’ve heard about it. Maybe it's someone else?
Why Nikolai left boxing
Nikolai Sergeevich stopped performing at the age of 36. For him, farewell to sports came unexpectedly. In 2009, a 15-year contract with German promoter Wilfried Sauerland ended. The athlete was worried about knee and back injuries.
Boxer Nikolai Valuev, still in Germany, decided to undergo a thorough medical examination there. Unexpectedly, on a tomography, doctors discovered a brain tumor, fortunately, benign. If he decided to continue his boxing career, the athlete could die, possibly right in the ring. Nikolai did not feel fear of the uncertainty of the future; farewell to sports seemed inevitable to him.
Fortunately, the brain surgery was successful.
Nikolai Valuev's wife - Galina Valueva
Nikolai Valuev’s wife, Galina Valueva, is a guardian angel for the celebrity. She helped her husband overcome a serious illness. The woman hoped for a miracle until the last moment, and it happened.
The young boxer and Galya met in their youth. At first they were connected by friendship, which later grew into strong love. The wedding was quiet and modest. The lovers then got married in the church.
Irina takes care of the house and raising children. For this she left her job, as she is a completely non-public person. A woman rarely appears in public with her husband.
Valuev's parliament
Nikolai Sergeevich was elected to the Duma of the Russian Federation by the people of Kuzbass. If you ask his voter: “What catches the viewer’s eye when Valuev is behind the podium?” “Height, perhaps,” he will answer jokingly, but then he will add that the ex-champion does have live contact with his voters. Indeed, the ex-champion travels a lot around the region. He is one of ten deputies representing the Kemerovo region in the State Duma.
Valuev is a member of the Duma Committee on Sports and Youth Policy and is competent in issues in all areas of his work. Also, having a long-term hobby, he participates in the Duma working group on the law on hunting.
Valuev’s wife, Galina, jokes that sometimes in the kitchen she informs Nikolai of the people’s voice on government issues, for example, on increased fines for driving violations. In an interview, she mischievously assures that she will not let “her Kolya” become a cynic.
Family and Children
The family of the famous champion has three children: son Grisha, born in 2002, daughter Irina, born in 2007, son Sergei, born in 2012. Nikolai Valuev's children adore their father, sometimes jokingly calling him Shrek. That’s what his daughter Ira once called him when she was very little. The situation, I must say, was quite comical. Once, when there were guests in the house, she opened a magazine with pictures of comics offered to her and, noticing a cartoon Shrek there, loudly asked her mother: “Who is this? Dad?"
For many Russians, Nikolai Valuev can serve as an example of not only an athlete, but also a family man. Nikolai Valuev takes his eldest son fishing with him on weekends, as his father, whom Grinya never saw, once did.
Daughter of Nikolai Valuev - Irina Valueva
In mid-2007, the star family was replenished with a baby daughter. The girl was named after her maternal grandmother. She spent a lot of time with her parents and older brother.
The daughter of Nikolai Valuev, Irina Valueva, is incredibly talented. She sings, dances well, and plays in dramatic productions. To date, the girl has already starred in two films. She began to dream of her life with dramatic art.
Ira is also interested in sports. Unlike her brothers, she does gymnastics. At a recent competition, the girl became a prize-winner.
