Could Oleg Maskaev's career been a tad better

No not really. Maskaev was really the first of the european styled heavies to burst onto the American scene. He came out of the same amatuer crop as David Izon, David Tua, Hasim Rahman, Ike Ibeabuchi etc. He was definitely pushed way to fast early on and had no business being in there with Mcall at that time. I was at that fight when he got blasted out by Mcall, it was on the undercard of a Trinidad fight (not sure though now that I think about it). All things considered he did pretty well considering he was really purely a european stand up boxer, and he was competing against some guys that could still fight a little.
If anything I think he would have accomplished more had he come up a little later, when he would be competing against guys who can only fight in his style which he was pretty good at.

 

He's an overachiever in my view. Having a weak chin at HW is always going to stop you from being at the very top, and Oleg certainly had a poor chin. He had a good punch but nothing overly spectacular, wasn't really, really slow but was hardly a speed demon, and like I said had a poor set of whiskers.

Kirk Johnson, Corey Sanders (T-Rex, not the super southpaw freak of nature), and Mount Whitaker all knocked him out. He had Hasim's number and was incredibly lucky that he happened to be holding the WBC when he got his title shot.

Had he not gotten that title shot, he would hardly be remembered 10-20 years down the road. With that win, he'll be remembered at least as a solid fighter.

 

Yes, he was matched extremely hard, but his debut win is pretty awesome.

Fought McCall in like his 6th fight. But then again, he carried on fighting and still elected not to defend his clearly weak chin, so these fights didn't seem to teach him anything.

If he'd learnt from these early fights he would've had an abundance of experience. As is stands, he did well with what he had. He hit very, very hard but had a very, very fragile chin.

He did as well as he could IMO. A mix of his own fault at not adapting and poor management (which, as I said could've been good for him if he'd learned) kept him at the level he should've been.

if that makes sense.

Let me try again; if he'd been matched easily he would've looked better on paper.

There, think I've done it now :rofl :good

 

Good post :good

 

I meant overachiever in that post, accidently put in underachiever.

Maskaev was thrown to the wolves early though, but he never really changed up his game much even by the end of his career. Like you said he should of adapted to his weak chin and changed his style around after getting blasted out multiple times.

 

I dont know if he had a weak chin, he took some bombs from Tua and Rahman, but to me its more proof that these euro fighters of today would have a tough time with even the limited fighters of the mid to late 90's. They just cant fight, and dont have much defense when things get rough and ultimately fall apart.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmDjDHx8mEU

he actually had 15 fights

 

Was actually reflecting on Olly's career myself last night. A little careful matchmaking (basically relatively weak-chinned and relatively light-punching contenders) could have resulted in a shinier (if not necessarily radiant) resume.

 

opps said the 15 part right after i saw the record ...my fault!

 

Good point, back then you didn't have boxrec where anyone can look up the entire history of bouts from even the most obscure fighters.

 

This is a load stereotyping bull****. Your assumption is that all-Euro heavyweights are exactly the same, right? Completely interchangable, not a one being better or worse.

Well, I think the Klit's, Povetkin and others would enjoy success at an elit level in any era.

Or perhaps you would like to answer where all that uber-talent from the 90's went to. Oh that's right, they invented the NFL and NBA in 1999 and they all left.

 

Well I dont agree with that. Please name me some european boxers that can actually fight? Most if not all european heavyweights box in the "stereotypical" stand up style. When has there been a brawling or inside fighting european heavyweight?