Valuev defeated Holyfield on points in a bout on Saturday in Switzerland. The judges scored the fight 114-114, 116-112, 115-114 in favor of Valuev, 35, dubbed The Russian Giant, who now has a record of 50-1, with 34 knockouts.

"Holyfield was impressive and the close result makes a rematch a possibility," Chris Meyer, a managing director of Sauerland Event, said in an interview with FightNews.com website, adding that "Nikolai has to fight Chagaev first."

Valuev became Russia’s first world heavyweight champion in December 2005 when he defeated John Ruiz. Last year he was just a few steps behind the record of legendary Rocky Marciano, who retired at 49-0 as boxing’s only ever undefeated heavyweight champion, but lost his title bout to Ruslan "White Tyson" Chagaev of Uzbekistan, suffering his first and so far only defeat.

Valuev and Chagaev later scheduled a rematch, which did not take place due to Chagaev’s injury and the Uzbek boxer was announced the champion in recess.

The 30-year-old Uzbek boxer (24-0, 17KOs) will face Puerto-Rican Carl Davis Drumond (26-0, 20 KOs) in Mecklenburg, Germany on February 7.

"There is no need for Chagaev to fight a different opponent before because Nikolai is ready and waiting for him. After that, we will see what happens," Meyer said.

After the bout in Switzerland, Valuev said he was honored to fight the 46-year-old four-time world champion Holyfield (42-10-2, 27 KOs).

"It was an honor for me to fight a legend like Evander Holyfield," Valuev told FightNews.com. "He proved that he is a great boxer. It was a very close and a very fast fight."

Holyfield said in turn that although he was disappointed it was a good fight, adding that Valuev is quicker than some people believe.

"His hands are not as slow as people think. He is very hard to hit because he is so big. He had a pretty good defense by the way he positioned his body, he is a hard target to hit," Holyfield said.