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HBO World Championship Boxing Recap

March 8, 2008

Plaza de Toros-Cancun, Mexico

This event is taking place at a bull ring in Cancun. They are using a very large ring tonight 22' on each side, which may lead to more defensive matches.

WBC Heavyweight (200+ pounds) 12-Round Championship Match:

Oleg Maskaev (34-5, 26 KO's, 243 pounds) (c) vs. Samuel Peter (29-1, 22 KO's, 250.75 pounds)

Maskaev won this title on August 12, 2006 via technical knockout 2:17 into round 12 over Hasim Rahman at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. That victory propelled Maskaev to win The Ring's Comeback Boxer of the Year Award for 2006. Maskaev is making only his second defense of this title.

Maskaev was born in 1969 in Kazakhstan to Russian parents and is a true product of the famed Cold War Soviet boxing system. He began his amateur boxing career in the 1980's, when he was working on his family farm in between the hours he spent working in the local coal mines. Maskaev became a top amateur boxer as a Lieutenant in the Red Army. In the army, Maskaev won the heavyweight boxing championship of the Red Army. After the break up of the Soviet Union, Maskaev was made a de facto citizen of Kazakhstan. However, on December 9, 2006, Time Magazine's 2007 Person of the Year, controversial Russian President Vladimir Putin gave Maskaev Russian citizenship.

The Russian citizen has suffered all 5 of his defeats via knockout. The first came when a poor management decision put Maskaev in his seventh match as a pro against former heavyweight champion Oliver McCall. The referee called a stop to that contest 1:38 seconds into round 1.

Maskaev's most recent loss was via round 8 technical knockout to Corey Sanders on March 17, 2002. After that Maskaev changed training camps, and has gone on to win 12 straight matches without being knocked down.

The champion's last match was a 12-round blowout unanimous decision win over Peter Okhello on December 10, 2006 at the Olympiysky Sports Arena in Moscow, Russia. On 2 of the judges' scorecards Maskaev won every round of the match. The champion has been inactive ever since, partly due to a back injury. The belief is that the back injury is a result of all the steroids he was given as a child and young man by the Soviet boxing trainers that is now breaking down his body. Maskaev is coming off a 15 month layoff for this match, the longest of his career.

Maskaev is ranked by The Ring as the number 4 contender to its vacant heavyweight championship.

Peter had a strong, but short amateur career. With under 30 amateur matches to his credit, Peter qualified for the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympic Games to represent Nigeria in boxing.

The Nigerian native turned pro immediately following the Olympics and stopped his first 7 opponents inside of 3 rounds. Peter stopped 6 of the 7 in round 1, before winning a 4-round unanimous decision. The Las Vegas resident followed the decision up with 10 straight knockout wins. Peter would go on to win his first 24 matches, until facing Wladimir Klitschko. On September 24, 2005, Klitschko defeated Peter narrowly via 12-round unanimous decision at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Peter scored 3 knockdowns in the match, only to gas out and lose the decision by being outworked the rest of the match.

To earn this title shot Peter had to win 2 consecutive title eliminators versus James Toney. Peter took the first on September 2, 2006 via 12-round split decision at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. However, the WBC ordered a rematch. Peter won that in a dominant 12-round unanimous decision on January 6, 2007 at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida. This win was supposed to guarantee Peter a shot at Maskaev next in the very near future, but the situation around the title became a mess for Peter.

Peter was offered $2 million by Maskaev's people to step aside and let Maskaev defend the title against a returning Vitali Klitschko in Moscow. However, Peter was never paid and then Klitschko was injured, again likely because of steroid abuse early in life under the Soviet boxing trainers. Therefore, that match never happened and legal problems kept everyone tied up in court for months. Then, the WBC in conjunction with Showtime put together a 3 match mini-tournament for the title. It would see Klitschko return to face Peter McCline on September 22, and Peter would finally get his shot at Maskaev on October 6. However, both Klitschko and Maskaev pulled out of their scheduled matches with back injuries. After Maskaev pulled out of his match with Peter, the WBC named Peter the interim champion and said McCline would now face Peter on October 6. The winner would then face Maskaev to become the full champion, and the winner of that would then face Klitschko. Whoever wins the match with Klitschko will then be required to face Juan Carlos Gomez.

Peter won his match with McCline at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York via 12-round unanimous decision. However, Peter looked awful in victory. Not only was Peter knocked down for the first time in his career as a pro, but he went to the canvas 3 times during the match. A right uppercut put Peter down with less then 1 second to go in round 2. Then in round 3, a McCline right hand sent Peter to the mat with 2:33 to go in the round, and another right hand had Peter falling to the mat again with 1:02 to go in the round. However, McCline had punched himself out by that point in the round and was unable to finish Peter. On 2 of the judges' scorecards for the match the only rounds McCline won were rounds 2 and 3. McCline was completely gassed the rest of the match boxing only in 5 second spurts. This allowed Peter to recover and win the match. However, Peter's conditioning in the match was also suspect. By round 10 the match had become a Greco-Roman wrestling match as both boxers were too tired to do anything, but hold on the inside. The referee was getting exhausted wrestling with the boxers to break, because the competitors were unwilling to release each other. The boxers barely had the energy to stand up under their own power at that point and were trying at all costs to avoid it. Peter blamed his retched performance on the fact he broke his right hand 3 weeks before the match. However, that did not answer all the questions this match raised, though. Peter said that the he was having problems defending with his right hand, but all 3 knockdowns came past the defense of his left hand, making that excuse weak. Another of Peter's camp later claimed Peter was suffering from a perforated ear drum during that match. However, HBO's Nat Gotlieb did a post match analysis of the contest looking for signs that was what caused Peter to go down. Gotlieb could not find that to be the case on any of the 3 occasions. Peter simply appeared to show problems dealing with the power of McCline. That could be problematic in this match, because Maskaev hits harder then McCline. Also, nothing explained the continued stamina problems that have plagued Peter's career

Peter is The Ring's number 2 contender at heavyweight.

At 27-years-old Peter has the age advantage over the 39-year-old Maskaev. Maskaev has the height advantage standing 6' 3" tall, while Peter stands 6' 2" tall. Both boxers have a 24.5" arm length.  Neither boxers unofficial weight approaching match time is available. However, neither boxers' weight is likely to have changed much since the weigh-ins. Maskaev is coming in a little too heavy for him, but appears in good shape. Peter is thick with muscle, but appears at least 20 pounds overweight. Both boxers will employ the orthodox stance. According to HBO.com, Peter is approximately a 4.5 to 1 betting favorite.

The judges for this match are from Mexico, Japan, and Belgium. The referee is Guadelupe Garcia.

Peter wins an uneventful round 1, 10-9. Lederman scores round 1 the same. Peter wins round 2, 10-9. Maskaev wins round 2 on Lederman's scorecard, 10-9. With 2 minutes to go in round 3, Peter receives a minor warning from the referee for hitting Maskaev behind the head. Maskaev keeps slipping Peter's left jab, then when Peter goes to follow up with the right hand he catches Maskaev in the back of the head. This has been a problem for Maskaev throughout the early portion of the match. Peter had Maskaev in real trouble with around 1:30 to go in round 3. However, the champion came back to hit Peter with several very hard punches that hurt Peter and had the challenger holding on in the last minute of the round. That makes the round very difficult to score, but Peter may win round 3, 10-9. After 3 rounds, Peter leads on my scorecard, 30-27. Lederman scores round 3 for Peter, 10-9, and has him winning the match, 29-28.

Peter wins a boring round 4, 10-9. Lederman scores round 4 for Peter, 10-9. The WBC is the only sanctioning body to employ one of the worst new ideas in boxing today for its championship matches, open scoring. That means after every several rounds, the official judges' scores are announced. It leads to all sorts of shenanigans. Since the scores are known publicly as the match progresses all of the participants change how they behave. It has been known to cause corner stoppages when boxers are still alive for a come from behind knockout. It can lead to radical score changes by judges to get in line with the other judges or appease angry crowds. It can also cause boxers who know they are hopelessly behind to take desperate actions that endangers both competitors safety. The first opportunity for the judges scores to be announced is at the end of round 4. Fortunately, the scorecards are not read following round 4, probably because this inexperienced ring announcer cannot figure them out. To prove how awful he is at his job, the ring announcer reads the scorecards while the action is going on in round 5 to detract from the match. The judges apparently all have the match for Peter by the scores of: 39-37, 39-37, 40-38 (this score is probably a mistake by the ring announcer and should read 40-36.). On the bright side, the ring announcer read the scores in English this time, which was better then he did with the final scores of the first match.

Peter wins round 5, 10-9. Maskaev out-landed Peter 20 to 10 in round 5, but it appeared Peter landed the harder punches. Lederman scored round 5 for Peter, 10-9. Maskaev may lose some close rounds, because he has filed a lawsuit against the WBC, who selected the judges for this match. The HBO commentators believe no matter how the rest of the match goes, Maskaev will not win the decision. In round 6, Peter receives his second warning for hitting behind the head of Maskaev. It is likely the next time Peter hits Maskaev behind the head he will lose a point. Peter hurt Maskaev with a hard right hand with 36 seconds to go in round and the champion is in trouble. Following a stream of power punches the referee steps in to stop the contest with 6 seconds to go in round 6. Maskaev never went down, but was out on his feet. This was a good stoppage by the referee.

The official outcome announced by Perez is that: at 2:56 of round 6 the referee has called a stop to this contest, making the winner by technical knockout, and new WBC Heavyweight Champion of the World, "The Nigerian Nightmare" Samuel Peter. The win makes Peter the first Nigerian heavyweight champion in history. The victory moves Peter's record to 30-1, with 23 of those wins coming by way of knockout.

The final punch stat numbers have Peter landing 93 of the 255 total punches he threw, for a 36% connect percentage. Peter landed 55 of the 125 power punches he threw, for a 44% power connect percentage. Maskaev landed 81 of the 243 total punches he threw, for a 33% total connect percentage. The former champion landed 34 of the 97 power punches he threw, for a 35% power connect percentage.

Peter's post match interview was confusing. He said he was the best heavyweight in the world. When Kellerman asked him about a potential match with either Vitali Klitschko or Wladimir Klitschko his answer became muddled. King yelling in the background did not help.

Maskaev did not give a post match interview.

A rematch between Wladimir and Peter is the most interesting potential match up in the heavyweight division. However, it appears unlikely to happen soon. King is very close to the WBC and King controls who Peter faces. That means King will have Peter face the boxers the WBC wants Peter to face. That starts with Vitali who will amazingly have a title shot after not being in action for over 3.5 years by the time that match happens. Peter's defense was substantially improved from his last match. However, his pace was still very slow and Peter did not answer many questions about his conditioning. It appears Wladimir's high workrate would still make him a bad match up for Peter.

Maskaev is very old by boxing standards. He still has great punching power, but doing this much longer can have serious long term health risks. Maskaev in an interview later in the night later said he intends to continue boxing, and the Russian citizen can still do it at an elite level. He can probably draw the most money boxing in Europe. There are many top European boxers he could draw well with, and Maskaev may be in line to face the winner of the title match between Nicolay Valuev and Ruslan Chagaev.

The boxing action in the main event was very slow, but ended strong. However, this is the most poorly run HBO boxing event in a long time. The main event was substantially delayed for the ring to be cleared following the opening match. For some reason the ring was not getting cleared before the start of any round. This made the average round 2:50 of boxing or less. In general, the amateurish way the event was handled detracted from what was a solid night of boxing. The main event is good action for people who enjoy slow heavyweights that punch hard.