Boxing Viewpoint: Maskaev Hopes For A Fairytale Victory

By Simon Jackson Courtesy www.frankmaloney.com

The hand struck. Twelve was reached and Cinderella is in trouble. Her coach turns into a vegetable, riches turn to rags and she is again reduced to sleeping on the floor before her improbable triumph over adversity.

The WBC version of the story is showing in Las Vegas’s Thomas and Mack Center on Saturday 12 August. Cinderella’s twelve midnight has been replaced with twelve rounds and all eyes will be on gloved hands rather than clock hands as Oleg Maskaev, heavyweight boxing’s Cinderella man, meets WBC Heavyweight Champion Hasim Rahman.

Seven years ago Kazakhstan born Maskaev, outmatched his “ugly sister” of the evening when he knocked Hasim Rahman out, and literally out of the ring, in the eighth round of ten at Atlantic City’s Convention Hall. A repeat of his pre-millennium performance will reward the former career soldier with a heavyweight title in place of the standard glass slipper following a career of adversity.

Maskaev and Rahman’s contrasting fortunes were highlighted in this week’s conference call between Rahman’s promoter Bob Arum and Dennis Rappaport, promoting Maskaev. “We call Oleg boxing’s Cinderella man,” said Rappaport, who has been promoting the 37 year old for the last ten of his 37 professional fights.

“He had an illustrious amateur career in which he stopped Vitali Klitschko in one round and won all kinds of medals. In his fourth fight he fought an undefeated heavyweight, Robert Hawkins; Oleg knocked him out, something no one has been able to do including Samuel Peter.”

In his fifth fight Maskaev fought Joe Thomas, who was considered a top prospect and beat him. In only his seventh fight, he was misguidedly matched against Oliver McCall who was then at the height of his powers having recently defeated Lennox Lewis.

The records show McCall knocked the Russian out in the first round and Rappaport continued:

“This was the essence of his career, peaks and valleys, wins and some terrible setbacks.
His [former] trainer said ‘quit’ and his promoter released him and Victor Valle Junior [our trainer] saw something, called me and said “everything this guy’s accomplished he’s done with pure guts and pure power nobody’s ever thought of.”

Maskaev had lost three of his previous five bouts and it was 11 months before he returned to the ring under manager Fred Kesch’s guidance to beat Errol Sadikovski in what was to be the first of ten consecutive victories.

Maskaev now finds himself “knocking on the door of the heavyweight championship” but he must be under no illusions of the difficulty he faces in attempting to wrest the sole non-Russian held championship belt from Rahman.

This will be Rahman’s third defence of his WBC heavyweight title following a win over Monte Barrett last year and then a draw with James Toney in Atlantic City in March. The 34 year old is already looking to further plunder the Eastern Bloc where the WBA title is held by Russian Nikolay Valuev and Belarus born Serguei Lyakhovich has the WBO belt.

But the likely target for Rahman is Ukraine’s Wladimir Klitschko, holder of the IBF crown, a fight Bob Arum reportedly wants to happen “by next April.”

Much has been made of Rahman being “America’s last line of defence” a statement which affronts Maskaev, who left Russia for the United States ten years ago and was granted American citizenship in 2004.

“I’m a proud Russian American so right now I’m a citizen of America” said the Staten Island resident who is currently quoted at 7/4 with UK bookmaker Ladbrokes to overturn 2/5 favourite Rahman.

Bob Arum started the conference call by welcoming the participants and stating “there is no question in my mind that this fight, because of who the participants are, will be a fight that’s going to end in a knockout.”

Few would disagree; though my thoughts are again drawn to the similarities between the original Cinderella who too picked herself up from the floor, went to the ball and wowed them all.