Last month Nikolai Valuev, 35, dubbed The Russian Giant (49-1, with 34 knockouts) regained his WBA heavyweight champion's title after defeating former two-time WBA heavyweight champion, John Ruiz, (43-8-1, 29 KOs) in Berlin on August 30.
"The issue of Nikolai Valuev's opponent has been open for a long time. We have been considering the renowned American boxer Evander Holyfield, among other possibilities," Valuev's official website quoted Boris Dimitrov as saying.
He said the final decision on Valuev's opponent will be made in the next few days, but that a bout with 46-year-old Holyfield was the most likely, and could take place on December 20 in Switzerland.
In an interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper earlier in the month Holyfield, four-times heavyweight world champion (42-9-2, 27 KOs), announced plans to hang up his gloves in 2009, but said he hoped to fight Valuev before retiring.
Holyfield, who is reportedly paying up to $500,000 a year in child support for nine of his 11 children from previous marriages, said he viewed the bout with Valuev as an additional source of income.
If the American, who lives and practices in Atlanta, Georgia, fights Valuev and wins, he will become the oldest ever heavyweight world champion.
Holyfield's last fight was in October last year, when he failed to snatch the WBO heavyweight crown from Russia's Sultan Ibragimov.
The seven-foot (2.13-meter) Valuev became Russia's first world heavyweight champion in December 2005 when he defeated Ruiz. In April last year he lost his title to Ruslan "White Tyson" Chagaev from Uzbekistan.
Since then Chagaev has defended his title once, but a torn achilles tendon forced a delay in his mandatory challenge bout against Valuev. On July 4, the WBA decided to sanction a match against the Russian's closest contender, John Ruiz.
Chagaev is currently what the WBA calls a "champion in recess," and Valuev will now have to face Chagaev before June 26, 2009, if the Uzbek manages to get fighting fit by then.
