On December 17, 2005, Valuev squared off with WBA heavyweight champion John Ruiz, and won a controversial twelve-round majority-decision. This victory came after narrowly defeating Larry Donald on points in the title elimination bout. These two fights were seen as controversial, being quite close, and showing Valuev's vulnerability to opponents who are capable of getting inside, while also able to avoid his trademark slow knockout punches. In the last days of December 2005, however, it was revealed that he had been fighting Ruiz one-handed, due to an injury of his right hand. This had been carefully concealed by Valuev's camp, in fear of losing the chance of fighting for a world title.
On Saturday 3 June 2006, in his first defence of the WBA heavyweight championship, Nikolai Valuev (then 44-0, 33 KOs) defeated challenger Owen Beck (25-3, 18 KOs) by third-round KO in Hannover, Germany. Beck tried to crowd Valuev, smothering the seven-footer's punches, but Valuev had some success landing his jab and rocked Beck with a hard right in the first round. Valuev dropped Beck with a right hand late in the second round and nearly finished him off. Valuev dropped Beck again with a right uppercut in third and the bout was halted as soon as the action restarted by referee Luis Pabon. Time was 1:44. Valuev, who was coming off two close decision wins, delivered a very impressive performance in this fight.
"My family wanted me to knock him out today, that's why I did it," Valuev said. "It was the right hand today," he added in reference to his win over John Ruiz when he won the title by standing outside the American and using his left jab.
On Saturday 7 October 2006, Valuev fought Monte Barrett and defeated him with a technical knockout in the 11th round, for his (Valuev's) 45th win. Barrett was knocked down in the eighth and eleventh rounds, but managed to get up. After being knocked down for the third time in the eleventh round, his trainer James Ali Basheer jumped into the ring to stop the fight.
--Wikipedia
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