Peter Stopped Oleg Maskaev To Retain WBC Heavyweight title

Samuel Peter let out a joyous cry as he left the Mexican bullfighting ring with the WBC heavyweight title belt draped over his hulking shoulders.
The Nigerian Nightmare had finally achieved his sweetest dream, winning his first championship after years as a promising prospect. He did it with no matador theatrics—just the blistering punches that make him the heavyweight division’s most exciting coming attraction.
He also became the first Nigerian to ever win boxing’s ultimate prize – the heavyweight title, and the third to be crowned world champion after Hogan Bassey and Dick Tiger.
Peter stopped Oleg Maskaev in the final seconds of the sixth round Saturday night, claiming Maskaev’s belt with one last punishing flurry of powerful blows.
Peter (30-1, 23 KOs) is widely considered the next big heavyweight in a division that desperately needs a dynamo, but his progression was slowed by politics, a few tame performances and Maskaev’s injuries that forced this bout to be postponed from October. After all that waiting, nothing could stop Peter when he finally got in the ring with the 39-year-old champion.
“I knew he can’t stand my power,” Peter said, still dripping with sweat and years of disrespect. “I’m the best heavyweight in the world. I’m undisputed. I can beat anyone. All of them are going down.”
Peter’s coronation was viewed by a lively sellout crowd at Plaza de Toros, the unlikely site of boxing-mad Mexico’s first heavyweight title fight. The fans got heavyweight-quality entertainment: Maskaev (34-6) and Peter both rocked each other with tremendous punches in the third round, but Peter eventually shredded Maskaev’s defenses with a sixth-round flurry.
The four major heavyweight titles have been dispersed among several relatively unknown Eastern Europeans in recent years, but now an African has joined them—albeit an African who lives and trains in Las Vegas. Though he still lacks some technique, he finally has a belt and a shot at bigger fights— even an eventual rematch with IBF champion Wladimir Klitschko, the only man to beat him.
Boxing’s erstwhile glamour division also should get a boost from a competitive, engaging fight just two weeks after Klitschko’s dull decision over Sultan Ibragimov in Madison Square Garden.
“I’m going to get him,” Peter said. “I’m going to beat his brother (Vitali). I’m going to tell him that I’m coming. I’ve got two belts. He doesn’t need the IBF. He needs this one. He’s going to come for this, and he’ll get stopped.”
After two slow opening rounds in Cancun, Peter stunned and staggered Maskaev with a prolonged burst of power punches, chasing him from one post to the next. Maskaev’s knees buckled, but he stayed up—and then he knocked Peter silly with a brutal left hand moments later.
In the sixth, Peter landed a devastating right hand. Maskaev came up woozy, and Peter pursued him relentlessly, landing more than a dozen shots before the referee stepped in to protect the defenseless champion with 4 seconds left in the round.
Maskaev, who entered the ring laughing and wearing a sombrero, labored through 13 years and five knockout losses before he won the WBC title in August 2006 with a stunning 12th-round KO of Hasim Rahman, the highlight of six straight years without a defeat. Maskaev then developed several nagging injuries that limited him to one title defense since winning the belt, and no fights in the last 15 months.
He was scheduled to fight Peter in Madison Square Garden in October, but pulled out two weeks beforehand with a back injury. Peter angrily claimed Maskaev had been ducking him for more than a year.
“He didn’t knock me out,” said Maskaev, who acknowledged his long layoff affected his sharpness. “He shook me, and he knocked me back, and the ref did the right thing. I hurt him a few times, but I wasn’t able to finish.”
With his new title in hand, Peter is expected to take on at least one of the Klitschko brothers—and possibly both. Wladimir, who unified the IBF and WBO titles last month by beating Sultan Ibragimov, has said he wants to go after all the heavyweight belts.
But Peter probably will fight Vitali Klitschko first, thanks to the arcane rules of the WBC, which appointed Vitali its “emeritus champion” with the right to challenge the champ when he decides to return from his nearly 3 1/2 -year layoff.
After Maskaev dropped out of the first fight with Peter, King’s decision to move the fight to this tropical resort city on the Mayan Riviera seemed strange to many, but more than 6,000 fans crowded into Cancun’s bullfighting ring for the festivities despite the absence of any big-name Mexican boxer.
Hundreds of fans still gathered well before dark on the busy grounds separating the ring from a bustling main thoroughfare in downtown Cancun. Hawkers sold everything from churros and hot dogs to headbands celebrating Julio Cesar Chavez and souvenir fight T-shirts in front of a long line for tickets. Inside, vendors walked the aisles with white buckets of beer, just as they do every Wednesday at the bull fights.