BERLIN: Briton David Haye lifted the WBA heavyweight championship after defeating Russian giant Nikolai Valuev by a majority decision on Saturday.
The former undisputed cruiserweight champion won over the judges with two scores of 116-112, while a third called it 114-114.
Haye improved to 23-1 with 21 KOs while Valuev's record dropped to 50-2 with 34 KOs.
Haye's first defense of the WBA belt will be against former titleholder John Ruiz, who earlier beat German Adnan Serin in the seventh round by TKO.
