Could Oleg Maskaev's career been a tad better

He is a big puncher and he is still active. His career CAN be better.

 

I am not saying there aren't stylistic generalities to various regions or ethnicities. However, the inference of earlier comments was that one Eastern Euro HW was as good as the other. That is a qualitative not descriptive difference. And it is certainly not the case. Maskaev was far better than Zolkin (who really was the FIRST to make a splash), and subsequently Chagaev, Povetkin, for a while Lykiavich, and the Klits are better than Maskaev. There also seems to be a good lot of talent on the way up from those regions. In effectiveness, they are not all the same.

Furthermore, I believe today's Eastern Euro heavies would do quite well in the 90's, whose best were busy feigning heart trouble, being bounced around by a senior citizen or whispering into the ear of a 80's journeyman trying to save their sorry ass.

 

Just watched Maskaev-Tua. Got to say, Oleg looked really good in that fight, Tua was unbeaten at the time and it was right before his slugfest with Ike. Oleg looked the closest to fluid that I've ever seen him, did a very good job of circling and using the jab, and was peppering Tua with lefts and rights and would of got a stoppage against someone that didn't have a chin like Tuaman. The strangest thing with this fight was Oleg's punch resistance, he took some huge punches in this fight and shrugged them off completely, it's really strange when you compare this to his later performances such as the Whitaker fight.

Ultimately you can't take Tua's left hook for long, and Oleg got a little overconfident and didn't really have the survival skills. He got cornered and should of hung on after taking a big shot, but instead fired back and started trading and Tua blasted him out. The stoppage was premature, Oleg was in deep trouble but deserved the chance to continue, especially considering the way he was performing. Oleg' corner was a disgrace, they were screaming at each other and Oleg himself that he needed to throw the right to take out Tua despite the fact he was outboxing Tua handily by sticking and moving.

My opinion of Oleg has gone up since watching this fight, with better matchmaking he could of certainly done better although maybe being thrown to the wolves early helped him later on in his career.....

 

Never have been impressed with Oleg Maskaev. The only young guys of that era I thought would turn out to be legit fighters were Ike Ibeubuchi, In Shape David Tua, and Wladimir Klitschko. They impressed me. Still do. I remember watching Oleg Maskaev's fight with Corey T-rex Sanders...god was that embarrasing.

 

Have you ever seen Maskaev-Tua? Maskaev was beating an inshape Tua handily before getting caught.

 

Yes but when you take into account Tua had a history of getting outboxed(Izon, Rahman, Oquendo) them scoring late Clutch Kayos...Its not all that impressive for Maskaev. Tua was always easy to outbox. Tua was one of the best in history at scoring late clutch kayoes, which is a positive to his legacy.

 

The Rahman and Oquendo fights occured when he was well past his best though. Maskaev was against a Tua who was at his absolute peak and was beating him with ease before getting caught, and it's not like Maskaev just ran from him, he fought him.

He showed very good skills in this bout and looked crisp.

 

I actually re-watched the first Tua-Rahman fight a few days ago, and thought exactly the same that you say about Maskaev, but about Rahman. He was actually pretty fast back then and quite skilled, with a strong jab, and easily beating Tua. The ending was controversial and Hasim set things straight in the rematch, but not on the judges' scorecards..... this thing that Rahman supposedly was a journeyman is bull****; he was a talented contender who became champion, but went south pretty quickly. A very talented boxer none the less... one of the physically strongest of all of them.

 

Yes, I think Oleg's career could have been a tad better from a managerial, and trainer perspective. I don't think Maskeav could have performed much better at his peak though.

Maskeav had Tua beat on points until he faded very late. With a bit more experience, he might have won on points. Facing McCall on your 7th fight was unwise. After Maskeav was Ko'd by Kirk Johnson, he went into a tail spin. A better manager could have avoided matching him with punchers in his next fight out.

I do give Maskeav credit for piecing himself back to together mentally. To come back from Oblivion and win a major world title belt is a pretty good accomplishment.

 

He wasnt managed right but at the end of his day his defense was sloppy and thats why he got ko'd so many times

 

Watch Tua Izon, Tua Rahman, and you will see the exact same fight.

 

Yes but my point is that they are all fighting each other in the same style. Yes some are better than others, but my stereotype is that none of them have any other dimension to their game besides straight up boxing. You needed that in the late 80's and most of the 90's to compete on the elite level and now you dont. Vitali was stopped by Lewis, Wlad was stopped by Brewster and Sanders, Maskaev by Tua, etc etc.

 

I did watch Tua-Izon recently, Tua wasn't getting outboxed in that fight. It was an even fight going into the 12th.

Tua wasn't in shape vs. Rahman. I'm talking about Tua at his active, in shape best here against Maskaev and it's not like Hasim was a bad fighter either when on his A Game.

 

Lewis was stopped by Rahman & McCall, Brewster was stopped by Klit & beat by Lykiavich, Tua was beat into retirement... I don't understand what that proves.

If by straight-up boxing you mean hardly ever losing a round (in the case of the Klits), controlling distance and KO'ing almost all your opponents, well, OK. I seem to remember that Ali had no real inside game besides clinching and holding, yet many praise him as the greatest of all heavyweights. Furthermore, Povetkin shows a completely different style to that of the K bros. We'll see it that continues to develop.