text: is valuev the real deal? he is 7 foot and 320 lbs, a huge bloke.  can he seriously contend for the heavyweight title, or will vladimir klitchko outbox him easily? he is certainly huge. the thing that makes nikolai valuev such a difficult opponent is that he also has a great jab. (unfortunately, i have not been able to see it myself since his fights haven't been televised in the us to the best of my knowledge.) this, combined with his reach advantage, is enough to keep the distance against most opponents at the same time as getting in some pretty good offense.  if (and that's a big if) he gets to fight wladimir klitschko anytime in the near future, he would definitely give wlad some problems. of course, wladimir isn't a small guy himself, though he would still be giving up a good half foot in height. the problem for wladimir is that he also relies heavily on the jab, so that reach advantage (though not so great as valuev has over other fighters) could become a major factor. i'm not really sure how this fight would go.  i do think sergei lyakhovich has a definite shot against valuev, though, because of his stamina and athletic ability. if valuev gets tired, lyakhovich would be able to take complete control of the fight.  since valuev already has the wba title, he's up there with the semi-name fighters already. i don't see his next opponent owen beck posing much of a problem for him because of his size, but i would like to see him against any of the current top heavyweights. valuev is still undefeated with 43 wins (31 by knockout), so it would be very interesting to see if and how any of those other top fighters manage to get past him.