By Mark Vester
After months of negotiations, Samuel Peter (28-1, 22 KOs) will receive his much deserved shot at WBC heavyweight champion Oleg Maskaev (34-5, 26 KOs).
Samuel Peter won two consecutive WBC mandated eliminators over James Toney to earn a shot at Maskaev. Not long after the second win over Toney, which took place in January, former heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (35-2, 34 KOs) announced that he was coming out of retirement to challenge Maskaev. Because Klitschko retired as WBC champion in November 2005 due to a knee injury, the WBC promised him an immediate title shot if he ever planned to come out of retirement.
Rather than getting involved in the mess, the WBC told all three sides to mediate the situation in order to reach a deal that would work for all parties.
Boxing scribe Dan Rafael reported that all three sides came to a deal on Wednesday. According to the deal, Maskaev must face Peter by August. Vitali Klitschko will become the mandatory and face the winner before the end of the year. Dino Duva (Peter) and Dennis Rappaport (Maskaev) have three weeks to reach a deal or the WBC will call for a purse bid.
Duva told Rafael that negotiations will begin sooner than later.
"I will begin negotiations with [Maskaev promoter] Dennis [Rappaport] immediately. We were told by all the lawyers it is a done deal," Duva said. "My goal is now to schedule the [Maskaev-Peter] fight as soon possible and to do it as amicably as possible. If we don't make a deal, we go to a purse bid. But I want to make a deal with Dennis."
For several weeks, it was said that Maskaev and Klitschko would clash in Moscow on June 2, with Peter receiving $2.75 million to step aside. Rappaport told Rafael that negotiations broke down when Klitschko said that he needed more time to get ready for the fight and would not be able to move forward with a June fight date.
"The contract was set, the site deal was completed and the insurance policy to cover the $1.5 million was in order," Rappaport said. "Then, all of a sudden, Klitschko doesn't sign the contract. I get a call [Wednesday] morning from Shelly saying Klitschko doesn't think he will be ready June 2, that he needs another few weeks. I said, 'This is insane. All of a sudden, Klitschko doesn't know when the fight is supposed to take place? We've been going over this for eight weeks.' This has been the most frustrating experience."
Finkel shot back, stating that Klitschko needs more time because his trainer Fritz Sdunek is hospitalized and needed more time to recover for the training camp. He admits that it took to long to put the fight together, but Klitschko will be ready to face the winner. In order to shake off some rust, Klitschko will take a tuneup fight this summer in Germany. He last fought in December 2004, when he stopped Danny Williams in his first and only defense of the WBC title.