The truth behind Maskaev vs Vitali's amatuer bout!!

The Truth behind Vitali Klitschko vs. Oleg Maskaev in 1991! 01.02.07 - By Izyaslav “Slava” Koza: At least as far as a neutral third party witness is concerned that is. Over the past few years, much has been made about the infamous 1991 amateur bout between current WBC champ Oleg Maskaev and former WBC champ Vitali Klitschko in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The controversy regarding the bout was initiated by Oleg Maskaev’s promoter Dennis Rappoport, when he claimed that his fighter not only beat but TKO'd and dropped the then champ Klitschko three times on his way to a towel based submission victory. For his part, Klitschko denied the claim and paid little attention to it since he was having other namely injury related problems. Since Maskaev initially claimed he was hazy on the outcome of the bout, the story was swept under the rug since Vitali retired and Oleg knocked Hasim Rahman out to nab the belt Vitali had just given away. However, as with most unsubstantiated stories of such a nature, rumors never die they just go away for a while. Since Vitali is coming back and an “Iron Fist” Klitschko-Maskaev super fight is possible the rumor has come out of retirement as well. For his part Maskaev, most likely spurred on by his promoter to sell the PPV worthy WBC title fight, is becoming emboldened in his recollections regarding the 1991 contest. So what was the real outcome of this 16-year-old contest? The most neutral source that I could find, and don’t remember if I had mentioned, comes from a one Vladimir Zolotarev, who was an arbiter at the tournament in Tashkent. Zolotarev had this to say regarding the fight: To be honest, we didn’t have a burning desire to go there (Tashkent) because Vitali had to participate in a Kickboxing tournament in Paris, France. We wanted Vitali to have ample time to heal up (Klitschko injured his right hand in the spring of 1991 at the Spartakiad Ukraine competition) or at the very least have a better chance of better recovering from the injury. Furthermore, participating in a world championship tournament was more prestigious overall. However, orders came from the top-‘not only should he go to Tashkent but he should come back victorious.’ I clearly remember the fight between Vitali and Oleg. It was the semi finals and Vitali’s chief second was Mikhail Yakovlevich Matsyh, while I was one of the judges at the tournament. Before the fight, both Mikhail Yakovlevich and I warned Vitali to protect his right hand because otherwise the towel would be thrown in for him. Vitali did very well in the first round, boxing only with his left. However, towards the end of the stanza, Maskaev tried to rush him and Vitali met the attack with a right. During the break Mikhail Yakovlevich and I warned Vitali very sternly, and told him that one more right hand shot would warrant withdrawal from the fight. In the second Maskaev once again rushed Vitali and when he once again met the attack with a right, I gave Mikhail Yakovlevich the sign to throw in the towel immediately. I still remember how angry Vitali was with me. After that, Vitali became the World Champion of kickboxing in Paris. So Oleg’s statements regarding knocking Vitali down three times in the first, make me smile quite a bit. So there you have it, guys, and make of it what you will. Perhaps Maskaev should be given 100% praise for attacking from a necessary angle and forcing Vitali to fire the injured weapon, or perhaps as with both Vitali’s bouts against Lewis and Byrd, his warrior’s mentality was for the first time betrayed by his body. Maybe it was not in Vitali’s best interests to fight Hasim Rahman with an injury since after a successful bout the stool Vitali sat on would have once again not allowed him to get back up. The point of this article is not to discredit Oleg Maskaev or Dennis Rappaport, but to shed light on the truth. Dennis Rappaport is one of the best promoters in the game of boxing today because, unlike some other big names, he puts his stock in his fighter’s ability, and the work they do, first, and negotiating on co promoting the conqueror of his man, second. However, respect and the full truth do not always go hand and hand. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- There you have it people. The truth behind the lie.