By Ryan Burton
Former heavyweight champion Oleg Maskaev, now 40-years-old, is making a run to reclaim a piece of the heavyweight championship and is looking at finally getting a showdown with Vitaly Klitschko in the professional ranks. Maskaev faces Nagy Aguilera (14-2) on December 12th in his adopted hometown of Sacramento, California. Maskaev and his manager Dennis Rappaport took time out of their schedules to speak to BoxingScene.com about Maskaev's future plans.
Rappaport, a very jolly fellow, wants Maskaev's story to be known to the American public. "Ryan a lot of people don't know Oleg's story and just how good of a fighter he is. Do you know how his career started?" I had to admit that really I didn't. I have seen a few of his fights in the last few years but to be honest that is about all I know about Maskaev. I remember being at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas to see his TKO victory in a rematch with Hasim Rahman and I remember seeing him look bad in a loss to Sam Peter. I don't remember much else about the guy.
Rappaport continued on saying, "Oleg was mismanaged from the beginning of his career. You know how boxing works. A guy turns pro and he gets ten or so tomato cans to start his career and then you gradually build a guy up. Oleg was thrown with a guy (Alexander Miroshnichenko) who was 21-0 in his pro debut! Can you imagine that? His 5th pro fight was against a guy who was 23-1 (Joe Thomas) and then in his 7th pro fight they throw him in their with Oliver McCall, a veteran of 32 pro fights and Oleg suffers his first loss."
Maskaev is scheduled to fight Ray Austin in a WBC Title Eliminator bout. Even with this eliminator locked up, Maskaev didn't cancel his planned bout with Nagy Aguilera. As Rappaport says, "We didn't even question it. Oleg is excited to fight in his adopted hometown of Sacramento. German TV thought we were crazy for still fighting this bout. I think we really need this fight to get Oleg as sharp as we can be so we can get ready for Vitali Klitschko. Plus Oleg really wants to fight in front of his fans in Sacramento." Vitaly Klitschko is somewhat of a sore subject for Team Maskaev. As Rappaport points out, "Oleg knocked Vitali out in the amateurs and they haven't faced each other since. I am not saying he is ducking Oleg but just look at it.
There have been many opportunities for them to fight and not one of them has came through. Why is that?"
I point blank asked Maskaev why he still is fighting at 40 years of age, being that he has been a champion and made plenty of money, and Maskaev put it like this, "I just want to win the heavyweight title again. I love boxing and this is what I do." When asked if he thought about retiring after his subpar peformance versus Sam Peter, Maskaev responded, "No. Not to make excuses but I couldn't train properly for that fight. I had a lot of issues with my back. I am back feeling good and ready to continue fighting." A fight against Vitali Klitschko is what ultimately drives Maskaev, "I don't know why he won't fight me. It would be a big fight in Russia. I ask him to fight me and he says he will and then we don't end up fighting. I just need to beat Aguilera and then Austin in the eliminator and he has to fight me or give up his title." That is a tall order but both fights are very winnable for Maskaev and he probably will be the favorite in both.
Maskaev, while not a huge star in the United States even with his numerous HBO appearances, is very popular in his adopted Sacramento and even more so in his native Russia. A fight with Klitschko in Russia or Ukraine would draw very big television ratings in those respective countries. With the roll Vitali Klitschko has been on, you would think he would want the fight to avenge the amateur loss along with the potential monetary gain. Regardless of what Klitschko does, The Big O fights on.
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