Press Release: A little more than a week before fighting for the vacant WBA heavyweight title, Nikolai Valuev, The Russian Giant turned 35 years old today. When he entered the breakfast room at Kienbaum´s training facilities this morning, he was in for a special surprise. A delegation from Team Sauerland as well as coach Alexander Zimin and his sparring partners welcomed him with a birthday serenade. Valuev was touched. “I did not expect that at all,” he said. “We have been working so hard and everybody was so focused on the world title fight against Ruiz that I did not expect anybody to take notice of my birthday.” But Sauerland's Petra Schneider had more to offer. She presented the Russian Giant a voucher for the “Diggerland” park where Valuev can go to drive bulldozers. But the biggest surprise was yet to come. His wife Galina had secretly travelled from Russia to Kienbaum to surprise her husband, who could not believe his eyes. “I have missed her so much,” he enthused. “I have not seen her in such a long time due to the training camp. But now she is here. That is incredible. I could not have asked for a greater birthday present.”