Sharkie’s Machine
By Frank Gonzalez Jr.
March 9th, 2008
“Peter Pummels Maskaev in Six”
Saturday night at the Plaza de Toros in Cancun Mexico, WBC Heavyweight Champion
Oleg Maskaev (34-6, 26 KO’s) lost his title to the younger Sam Peter (30-1, 23
KO’s) after Peter delivered a series of power punches in the sixth round that
forced Maskaev to cover up, get rocked a few times and ultimately be saved by
the referee, who stepped between them and stopped the contest.
Sam Peter’s aggressiveness was the difference in this fight. Maskaev lost the
first round by not punching enough. He did better in the second as he jabbed
well and connected with a few scoring blows. Peter landed the bigger punches but
Maskaev was starting to realize that by using simple boxing techniques, he could
catch Peter with a big right hand somehow. It didn’t happen. Peter won the
second by doing more damage.
Maskaev had a better showing round three and four as he used his jab
proficiently and managed to crack Peter with a left hook and a few other power
shots. Peter hit Maskaev a few times behind the head and did so again in the
fourth round. Maskaev complained on a few occasions to no avail. Maskaev was
making a big mistake looking to the ref while Peter was winding up to crack him
again. Maskaev landed the cleaner punches during the late exchanges of the
fourth.
In the fifth round, Peter cracked Maskaev with three consecutive shots. Maskaev
scored with a nice right cross. Peter landed a right of his own. Again, Peter
cracked Maskaev three times in a row. In the sixth, Peter hit Maskaev behind the
head and got a warning. Both landed in spots until Peter caught him with a
combination of shots forcing Maskaev backwards and covering up. Peter kept on
punching, landed many and Maskaev didn’t respond with anything back, so the ref
rightly stopped it at 2:56. Maskaev didn’t protest the stoppage and Peter
celebrated his TKO 6 Victory.
* *
Maskaev got his WBC belt by beating Hasim Rahman in August of 2006 by KO 12. But
Rahman didn’t exactly earn that title—he inherited it when Vitali Klitschko
decided to retire earlier that same year. In spite of his vigorous training
sessions in preparation for this fight, Maskaev had some ring rust. He hadn’t
fought since December of 2006. Peter has been the busiest HW out there. Peter
deserves credit for the forceful way he beat Maskaev, who is a smart, quality
boxer with good power, although he’s a bit on the slow side. Maskaev will be 40
years old this time next year. It’s likely that he’ll retire soon. He had a good
run and hopefully made enough money to enjoy the rest of his life.
I hear a lot of people say that the alphabet soups and their belts don’t mean
much. That is truth. The values of all these titles are watered down by the fact
that there are so many of them. It’s obvious there is no legitimate rankings
system, or how in the world does Vitali Klitschko come back after a couple of
years away and get a shot at a title immediately? I am sure that a tip top shape
Vitali would beat the lot of HW’s out there today, including his little brother
if he were so inclined to fight him. (I am not advocating that he does) But
what’s right is right. The guy who fights Wladimir Klitschko next should be
Peter, or Chagaev, both of whom deserve that much.
Wladimir has the IBF, IBO and WBO titles. Peter now has the WBC title. Ruslan
Chagaev owns the WBA title. So, you don’t have a World Champion, you have three
guys with belts. There are not a lot of quality names gracing the ranks of the
HW division, so it’s pretty obvious that the top guys should all just fight each
other and settle things once and for all.
Unfortunately, Wladimir’s brother Vitali is being considered to be the opponent
of the winner of Maskaev vs. Peter. It sure smells bad when a guy is out of the
ring for a couple of years, then comes back and suddenly, like magic, he’s the
top contender. If Vitali comes in good shape, I can’t see Peter beating Vitali,
but you never know and that’s why they fight the fights.
This is not fair to Wladimir because we all know the brothers have vowed they’d
never fight each other. Hopefully Vitali stays out of the ring until his brother
gets the opportunity to consolidate the titles. As usual, the sanctioning bodies
are not interested in having a Unified Champion.
There are but two logical fights at HW; and that is Wladimir Klitschko vs. Sam
Peter II or W. Klitschko vs. Ruslan Chagaev. Wladimir owes the fans a good
outing after his less than entertaining win over Sultan Ibragimov sullied his
marketability a bit.
If I ruled the world, Wladimir would face Chagaev in July and if he beat Chagaev,
he’d face Peter in November. Can you imagine a champion fighting three times in
one year? The ghosts of boxing’s past laugh in the background.
Can you imagine Chagaev beating Wladimir?
Against Wladimir, the possibility exists that Peter can win by KO because of his
power and tenacity. In their fight back in 2005, Klitschko went down a couple of
times from Peter punches. But Klitschko managed to out-box Peter and turned his
face into pulp from all those clean jabs he landed. It’s more likely that
Klitschko’s boxing skills wins him the fight by decision.
Klitschko is more a pragmatist in the ring these days. While he could probably
knock Peter out if he got so inclined, its more likely he’d be satisfied to win
safely by decision. If Jameel McCline could get so close to knocking Peter out,
why not Wladimir, who has bigger power in both hands. Peter has a few glaring
flaws. He’s often wide with his punches, his defense is questionable and McCline
showed that he doesn’t take well to being clocked by power punchers. Who does?
But it is a reality at HW, where one punch can end a fight at any time.
* * *
Comments can be emailed to dshark87@hotmail.com
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