Former heavyweight boxing champion Nikolay Valuev, now a Russian MP, hit out Thursday at plans of fellow lawmakers to make martial arts an aggravating factor in assaults, similar to the use of a weapon.
The draft bill was proposed after cage fighting champion Rasul Mirzaev punched a student outside a Moscow nightclub. The student, Ivan Agafonov, died several days later, and Mirzaev is on trial in connection with his death.
“Too many people fall under the current draft bill,” Valuev told the Ekho Moskvy radio station.
“A person goes to the gym, starts learning mixed martial arts, hits someone a week later and that’s going to be an aggravating factor.”
He added that the bill had been criticized at the committee stage in the Russian parliament, and was not certain to become law.
The 38-year-old Valuev first held the WBA heavyweight title in 2005 when he beat John Ruiz, before losing the belt to Chagaev in 2007. He regained the vacant title in 2008 against Ruiz and retired three days after his defeat to Haye in 2009.
Valuev, known as the Beast from the East, became an MP for the ruling United Russia party following the December 2011 parliamentary elections.
