Towering boxing champ and MP Nikolai Valuev drafted by Putin to fight in Ukraine, after decade-long hunt for Bigfoot

29 September 2022, 16:34 | Updated: 29 September 2022, 16:37

Former heavyweight world champion Nicolai Valuev has been called up to serve in the Russian army, having spent the last 10 years searching for the Russian Bigfoot.

The 49-year-old is known for his enormous size, standing at 7ft tall, and having weighed almost 23 stone at his peak.

He held the WBA heavyweight title between 2005 and 2007, and in 2009, before losing it to Britain's David Haye in their "David Vs Goliath" showdown in Nuremberg.

After hanging up his gloves in 2009, Valuev entered politics, joining the Russian parliament in 2011 where he represented the Putin-backing United Russia party.

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But despite undergoing treatment for "serious bone and joint problems" since his retirement, he will now serve in Putin's brutal invasion of Ukraine.

In an interview with Russian state media, he said he'd been drafted when he was in the Donbas in eastern Ukraine.

Though, unlike his fellow MPs, Valuev will have to present himself at the military resignation and enlistment office.

"In my opinion, everyone has received a summons, I also received a summons," he told Russian newspaper Izvestia.

"Will I go? Of course, I will go to the enlistment office now."

Speaking of his parliamentary colleagues, he said: "My colleagues are good, they were registered for military service in the State Duma and received summons here, but I have to go home.

"I received the summons right before my trip to Donbas, and I was not at home."

He added: "Next week I will definitely go and report to the enlistment office."

According to the Daily Star, the fighter has spent the last 10 years attempting to find proof of the Russian "Bigfoot".

His fascination for the subject even seen him appear on Channel 4 series "Bigfoot Files", in which he's seen making his way through the Siberian wilderness.

He went on a separate search for the mythical creature in 2011, according to an official Russian government press release.

It said: "Valuev did not manage to meet the yeti itself but on the way, he discovered 'traces' such as broken tree branches."

"By the time they reached the cave, the expedition saw gigantic footprints, similar to a human's."

On Friday Russia will formally annex occupied parts of Ukraine where it held Kremlin-orchestrated "referendums" in which it claimed that residents had voted overwhelmingly to live under Moscow's rule.