Not really, Valuevs best wins are Ruiz and village elder Holyfield. It’s an interesting win if that makes sense?
Given how people are lauding Usyk beating Fury its an ATG accomplishment given that Chagaev is 6 ft 1 and was almost a foot shorter. Valuev was the best champ at that time except Wlad and the best fighter from that era except for his brother Wlad didn't fight. The 2 fighters to beat Valuev were 2 of Wlads 3 best title opponents. So within the context of that era its a pretty big win.
Well, let's scale it down a foot for both of them. If a 5'1 man took the title of an undefeated 6-footer, would that be impressive? How many of us here would be impressed if someone eleven inches shorter went twelve rounds with us and got the better of it? Like you're both nobodies, but at a local gym, and a man eleven inches shorter than you agrees to go twelve and he outdoes you without getting squashed, you aren't even a little impressed at that?
I can't agree with that. Valuev wasn't very good. He was carefully managed and beneficiary of preferential scoring at home. Past-prime Larry Donald outboxed him, He also had two ugly fights with past-prime John Ruiz which could've gone either way. Who did He beat besides that? McCline - also past his best - on injury and fringe contender Barret. I don't think Valuev is even in top 10 of his era, let alone top 3. It was a decent win for Chagaev, but nothing to write home about.
Valuev gets alot of hate but regarding his achievements he's probably a top 5 Heavyweight champion of the decade in 2000s which may sound laughable but it is probably true. Part of that though is how terrible the era was which has to be taken into account, but he did win 6 world title fights and has some ok names on his resume. Valuev 7'0 319 pounds 84 inch reach vs Chagaev 6'1 228 pounds 6'1 74 inch reach. How many Heavyweights have beaten an opponent with such a height/reach/weight advantage that were a top 10 ranked Heavyweight ?
And the Holyfield fight was a robbery, and the Ruiz fight was close, Donald also got massively robbed against him, but no one remembers because it wasn’t an entertaining fight, Haye and Chagaev get credit for beating Valuev simply due to the size difference, Haye’s Chisora win is more impressive, and Chagaev being competitive with Povetkin is also more impressive than the Valuev win.
It would have a lot more value if Valuev wasn't a pound for pound dodo. He is a man who exclusively won titles due to his size, and was exclusively notable due to his size, it's easy to see in any of his fights. I'd say that any fighter that is considered "good" at heavyweight should be able to beat him, it's less of an achievement and more of a bare minimum.
Valuev has should have losses on his record to Larry Donald, Johnny Ruiz, and 46 year old Holyfield...probably a couple of others. He wasn't good at all.
