This week it was announced that the October 6 heavyweight title (WBA) fight at Madison Square Garden between Oleg Maskaev and Samuel "the Nigerian Nightmare" Peter was postponed. Are you shocked? If you are, then you probably believed that Oleg Maskaev never saw the video of Sam Peter starching Jeremy Williams below. Believe me, he has seen it, and so has his promoter Dennis Rappaport.
I am no doctor, nor will I question the legitimacy of the back injury that Maskaev suffered during pre-fight training. However, it is clear to me, that certain actions leading up to the postponement, make it easy to wonder what is really going on. Just in case you wondered how I felt, I’ll keep it simple: Maskaev and his handlers never wanted the fight to begin with. Check out the following events and I will let you be the judge:
1. Sam Peter impressively wins his rematch against James Toney in January of this year; a bout that was supposed to serve as the eliminator for the belt that Maskaev currently holds, but Maskaev’s promoter delays contract talks on the fight and instead seeks a more lucrative fight with former titlist Vitali Klitschko.
2. When the fight with Peter was finally mandated by the WBC after lengthy legal threats, Rappaport finally relented but sued the WBC because he was unhappy with Maskaev’s share of the purse split.
3. And of course, Maskaev now has a herniated disc and a bulging disc in his back. So there you have it, my evidence on why Maskaev-Peter was never meant to be. That leaves us with the prospect of seeing Samuel Peter face a retread like Hasim Rahman, or even worse, John Ruiz for a paper heavyweight title on October 6.
The good news: Filipino sensation Manny Pacquiao meets Mexican legend Marco Antonio Barrera on the same night in a rematch of their featherweight showdown nearly four years ago. So you see, boxing is not dead, it’s just the heavyweights that are.
