BOXING HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE: WORLD BOXING Association Champion Nikolai Valuev won a majority points decision against four-time world champion Evander Holyfield on Saturday to end the American's hopes of becoming the oldest title-holder.

Holyfield (46), made use of his greater mobility and experience to confound those who had criticised the supposedly one-sided nature of the bout, and one of the three judges even awarded him a draw.

However, the other two favoured Valuev, who had controlled most of the fight with solid but unspectacular jabs, giving the 2.13-metre Russian victory by 116-112 and 115-114 points.

"I saw it the other way from the judges, but I'm not disappointed by my performance," said Holyfield. "He's a tough opponent, the sheer size of him is, of course, the main factor, but he fights well with it too and that's the problem."

Holyfield, who entered the ring a staggering 44kg lighter than Valuev as well as 11 years older, was the clear favourite of the Swiss crowd and there were loud boos when the decision was announced.

Despite a lively start and some late lunges in the last two rounds, the former champion was generally unable to trouble the Russian.

Valuev had plenty of chances to make the fight even more one-sided but failed to land more than a few glancing blows on two or three occasions when Holyfield left himself open.

By the eighth round, Holyfield appeared to be tiring, allowing Valuev to take steady control of the fight before fending off the American's late attempts to swing the contest his way.

Despite the defeat, Holyfield plans to fight on.