By James Blears
The WBC officially announced that heavyweight champion Oleg Maskaev and interim champion Samuel Peter will duke it out for the undisputed tag on February 2nd, at New York's Madison Square Garden.
Don King won the purse bid with an offer of $3,107,000 million dollars. Maskaev will recieve fifty-five percent, and Peter will get the forty five-percent slice. The winner will face Vitali Klitschko.
Maskaev couldn't fight Peter due to injury, but Don Jose said the February date, will give him time to recover and return fighting fit. He commented: "
The people in the long trousers have been fighting for a year, while the boxers have been sitting down, waiting for what they decide. We must understand that they become very aggresive when things don't go their way."
Don Jose explained that Maskaev had gone ten months without a fight. So if the fight was posponed a further four to five months, it would have gone over a year. And the rules state this would have been an automatic withdrawl of the recognition of his championship.
But instead of doing that the WBC accepted the extension, and appointed Samuel Peter as interim champion, to provide opportunity and avoid further delay. He confirmed that the winner winner of Maskaev vs. Peter, must face Vitali, probably in May.
Jameel McCline who fought Samuel Peter On October 6th is due to launch a protest about his unanimous decision loss. He knocked Sam down once in the second and twice in the third, before the Nigerian overcame the nightmare to fight back with hitherto unconsidered boxing skills.
Don Jose commented:
"I'm sorry to say this, but he (McCline) didn't do what had to be done to win the championship of the WBC. He let Samuel Peter come back and win almost every round for the rest of the fight. McCline is a good man, but he thought that with those three knockdowns he'd won the fight. You have to continue fighting to win each round. He blew the fight!"
