FORMER boxing World Champion and pro-Putin politician Nikolai Valuev has been mysteriously rushed to hospital weeks after he was drafted to fight in Ukraine.
Russian state media reports that the 7-foot colossus, who once fought David Haye, was sped to a Moscow hospital on Thursday night.
Reports in the Russian magazine Life claim he was hospitalised after complaining about leg problems.
However, his spokesperson has issued a bizarre denial, claiming: “No one broke his legs.”
Valery Kuzenkov told the publication: “Nikolai Sergeevich jumps, dances. Yesterday he was in the State Duma until late.
“No one broke his legs, and no one put him in the hospital. He is alive and well, smiling and walking on two legs. Now he is at home.”
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Valuev has now given a cryptic statement thanking his fans for their concern, but not confirming or denying that he was hospitalised.
“Thank you all for your concern and well wishes,” he wrote in his channel on the messaging app Telegram. “Everything is fine. We are working.”
He also said that he was continuing to work, and would be commenting on upcoming boxing matches this weekend.
“Tomorrow there will be fights on Channel One,” he said. “As usual, I will comment on what is happening in the ring. See you on the First.”
It comes less than two months after Valuev was called up to fight in Ukraine.
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On September 29, he published photos on social media of a summons letter to report to his nearest draft office, and wrote: “If the Motherland calls, I will go.”
But since then, he has given no indication of when he might go to Ukraine, and said he wouldn’t invite the media to go with him so they “did not do PR on this”.
Valuev made his professional boxing debut in October 1993, retiring in 2010 after 52 fights.
He won 50, including 34 by knockout, and became Russia’s first World Heavyweight Boxing Champion in 2005.
Valuev held the WBA title between 2005 and 2007 and reclaimed it in 2009 shortly before hanging up his gloves for good.
He was forced to retire in 2010 due to a benign brain tumour.
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After retiring in 2009, Valuev went into politics and joined the Russian parliament or Duma in 2011 as a member of the Putin-backing United Russia party.
He is also a Bigfoot obsessive, who has spent many years trying to track down the elusive creature in the wilds of Siberia.
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Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
