“This is an outrageous impudence. We have to find out, who’s behind this,” Valuev said. “All the medical tests are to be presented to experts in advance. But Chagaev’s team filed a paper claiming that everything is all right. But these tests were carried out by the doctor of the Chagaev team in Hamburg, a dependent person. We should’ve insisted a lot earlier on the tests to be conducted by an independent physician.”

The Russian boxer said it was impossible to fight Chagaev, knowing that he’s diseased.

”I must take care not only about my own health. Any normal person in this case would think about his family, about the possible consequences. Hepatitis B is not a cold. On the one hand, if the sick boxer missed a punch into the body frame, he risks the collapse of the liver. Then minutes will decide whether the doctors will be able to save his life. Secondly, in the ring you are not only withstanding your opponent, but also an invisible infection he carries. I have no idea how this would impact on the fight,” the Russian boxer explained.

Meanwhile, Chagaev’s team has issued a statement claiming that their man does not have the infectious disease hepatitis, but only a hepatitis antigen. The levels in his blood are below the international standards from which the hepatitis disease is considered infectious.

They say they remain unchanged for many years and are safe, which means Chagaev was already diseased during his first fight with Valuev back in 2007, where the Uzbek delivered the only career loss for the Russian and deprived him of his WBA belt.

“All this time, I piously believed that Chagaev caught hepatitis after our first fight in Stuttgart. The first information about him being infected appeared. He allegedly went to Uzbekistan and it is there where he got the disease… But back then it was rumor. No one could really verify whether Ruslan was ill or not, and the moment he fell ill…” Nikolay Valuev said.

The Russian champion said he’s very sad that “in actual fact, the year for him is lost.” He planned to defend his title from Chagaev and then face Vitaly Klitschko in October, but now he can only wait for the WBA decision, which now is hard to predict.

This is the third time a bout between Chagaev and Valuev has been suspended. Initially, the fighters were supposed to face off in the ring on May 31, 2008, but their fight was postponed due to the Uzbek suffering from illness – only for Chagaev to then suffer a freak, severe injury while sparring, when he stumbled and completely tore his Achilles tendon.