Briton David Haye scored a 12-round majority decision over 7-foot Russian giant Nikolai Valuev to capture the WBA heavyweight championship.

Haye (23-1), participating in his fourth title bout, won by scores of 116-112 on two of the scorecards while another judge had it even, 114-114.

Haye was coming off a fifth-round TKO of Monte Barrett nearly a year ago. His only loss came via fifth-round TKO against Carl Thompson in September 2004.

Valuev (50-2), making the second defense of his WBA reign, seemed outworked fighting for the first time since beating Evander Holyfield last December.

The 29-year-old Haye will likely make his first title defense against John Ruiz, who beat Adnan Serin via seventh-round TKO on this card earlier Saturday.

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