By Keith Idec
Photo © David Martin Warr
To be blunt, Oleg Maskaev and Samuel Peter are about as entertaining in press conference settings as Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Bernard Hopkins would be if they fought.
So if you went to Madison Square Garden Thursday expecting anything out of the ordinary, much less something similar to Ricardo Mayorga's maniacal rant across the street two weeks earlier, you were in the wrong place. Maskaev and Peter predictably responded to questions in boring but professional fashion, leaving all the hyperbole and manipulation of the English language to promoter Don King.
More important, though, they assured us that they're going to leave fight fans satisfied when they finally square off on Oct. 6 in New York, where they'll fight for Maskaev's World Boxing Council heavyweight title in the main event of a Showtime Championship Boxing broadcast.
Regardless, they'll compete for viewers that night with Filipino superstar Manny Pacquiao (44-3-2, 35 KOs) and Mexican legend Marco Antonio Barrera (63-5, 42 KOs, 1 NC), who will meet in a long-awaited rematch that'll be broadcast by HBO Pay-Per-View from the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.
If Barrera has one more slugfest left in his 33-year-old body, Pacquiao-Barrera II will be much more competitive and alluring than their first fight. But Peter promised to knock out Maskaev, who has defended his WBC crown only once since stopping Hasim Rahman again in the 12th round of their rematch a year ago in Las Vegas.
"Everything has come together in my fighting game," Peter (28-1, 22 KOs) said. "I can beat anyone, anytime. I will knock anyone out. I will knock Maskaev out in round three. I will stop him." The hard-hitting Nigeria native certainly looked like an improved product in both bouts against James Toney (69-6-3, 43 KOs, 2 NC), whom the 26-year-old Peter topped twice in elimination matches to more than earn his shot at Maskaev (34-5, 26 KOs). In fact, the aftermath of each victory over Toney probably provided more stress for Peter than their 24 rounds of action.
The WBC ordered an immediate rematch between Peter and Toney due to the controversial conclusion of their Sept. 2 bout in Los Angeles. Peter won by split decision, but many ringside observers believed Toney did enough to out-point Peter, whose handlers were perplexed but respectful of the WBC's dubious decision. He defeated Toney in much more convincing fashion on Jan. 6 in Hollywood, Fla., yet the WBC almost forced him to wait again when former WBC champ Vitali Klitschko (35-2, 34 KOs) announced his comeback later that month.
The Klitschko-Maskaev match didn't materialize mostly because Dennis Rappaport, Maskaev's promoter, and Shelly Finkel, Klitschko's adviser, couldn't deliver a negotiated $2.75 million "step-aside" fee for Peter.
Private investors in Russia reportedly withdrew their offer for funding Maskaev versus Klitschko, so both boxers went in different directions. Klitschko will instead encounter three-time world championship challenger Jameel McCline (38-7-3, 23 KOs) on Sept. 22 in Munich, Germany, in another Showtime main event.
The Peter-Maskaev melodrama didn't end there, though.
Dino Duva, Peter's Totowa, N.J.-based promoter, won the Maskaev-Peter purse bid on May 7, but Don King Productions assumed control of the promotion in June because Duva didn't secure sufficient funding before the WBC's deadline.
King's company submitted a bid of $3.1 million on May 7, $100,000 less than Duva's winning proposition, so he was awarded control of the promotion. Rappaport's $2.5 million offer was the third highest bid to promote the fight.
Rappaport subsequently sued Duva, King, who purchased a 50-percent stake in Duva Boxing in November, and the WBC, and questioned King's heavily scrutinized relationship with WBC president Jose Sulaiman. Rappaport argued that the WBC favored King in ordering a rare 55-45 purse split for Maskaev and Peter.
Purses for mandated matches are typically split 75-25 in the champion's favor, but Maskaev, a Kazakhstan native who fights out of Sacramento, Calif., has been contracted to make only $320,000 more than Peter, or $1.76 million.
While Peter promised Maskaev would pay by getting knocked out for the sixth time in his 14-year pro career, Duva doesn't envision a blowout win for the younger, stronger Peter.
"I don't look at this as an easy fight for Samuel, not at all," Duva said. "Obviously, I think Samuel is going to win and that he is the best heavyweight in the world. But Maskaev is a big, strong guy with skill and Samuel will have to be at his best to beat him."
If Peter wins the first title fight of his six-year pro career, it should lead to a unification fight against Ukraine's Wladimir Klitschko (49-3, 44 KOs), who escaped his September 2005 fight against Peter with an unconvincing unanimous decision win.
"This fight is very important to me because I have to take over this division," said Peter, a Las Vegas resident. "I have been working a long time for this opportunity. ... This is the world championship fight. Showtime has given me this opportunity and Showtime will have the next new WBC heavyweight champion and then the future world champion. This will be the best fight Showtime is going to have."
Peter and Maskaev will have difficulty duplicating the riveting violence Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez manufactured during their two Showtime fights this year. But no matter what happens, together they're sure to entertain in the ring much better than they do outside it.
Keith Idec is a sports writer for the Herald News.
