Sports Ticker:

Valuev to face Lyakhovich

December 18, 2007

NURNBERG, Germany (Ticker) - The heavyweight division continues to move closer to unification.

Nikolai Valuev and Sergej Lyakhovich will battle in a WBA eliminator on February 16, it was announced Tuesday,

The winner of the bout will earn the right to challenge current WBA champion Ruslan Chagaev.

The heavyweight division has not had a unified champion since Britain's Lennox Lewis retired in 2004.

IBF and IBO champion Wladimir Klitschko and WBO titleholder Sultan Ibragimov will meet in a 12-round heavyweight title unification bout on February 23 at Madison Square Garden. The winner will emerge with two of the four major sanctioning organization title belts and be one step closer to becoming the unified heavyweight champion.

The winner of the February 2 fight between Russian Oleg Maskaev and American Samuel Peter will be crowned the WBC champion.

Valuev (47-1, 34 KOs) is just one win over Lyakhovich from earning a rematch with Chagaev, who handed him the sole loss of his career in April 2007 with a close majority decision.

"I want to win my title back," the Russian said. "And I will move closer to my goal on February 16."

Valuev, 34, bounced back from his first loss with an easy victory over Jean-Francois Bergeron in September. It was the first fight for Valuev under trainer Alexander Zimin, who replaced Manuel Gabrielian.

Zimin has not only changed Valuev's style, but also his training methods and training to Japan.

"I want Nikolai to please the fans," Zimin said. "He shall entertain them. That's why we've changed his style completely - he is punching more and hitting harder."

Lyakhovich (23-2, 14 KOs) lost his WBO title to Shannon Briggs in November 2006 and the 31-year-old from Belarus has been inactive since.

"He is a former champion so I will take him very seriously," Valuev said.