Well he had Rahmans number. Oleg was a strong fighter with good skills but he showed a fragile chin in the amatuers and in some fights, Kirk Johnson, Withaker, Sanders, yet beat the better skilled of the bunch Rahman. He was not always managed correctly MCCall in his 10th fight, then Tua but he always tried and kept coming back and won a title........but he was not one of the best of even his era
You make some valid points about Peter's abilities. But, my only ascertion is that the Peter fight should not be used as a career defining performance for Maskaev. I think the concensus is fairly consistant in that he was done.
The First McCall fight was in February, 1996. At the time Maskaev was a rising young prospect. Presumably he hoped/thought he could become the undisputed champion of the world. At this stage, it is doubtful that Maskaev's camp suspect stamina problems or chin problems. McCall had been defeated on points by Buster Douglas, Tony Tucker, Mike 'the Bounty' Hunter and Orlin Norris. He also only barely won a split decision against Lionel Butler. He did have his upset knockout victory over Lennox Lewis, but after this he struggled with an ancient Larry Holmes,and lost his world title to Lennox Lewis. He was a very big name (had just lost the world title, but you would think from his struggling fights he was there for the taking if Maskaev was good enough). I would say it is a big reward (a win probably put him as the no1 contender and in line for a world title shot vs a minimal risk as mccall had looked to be showing signs of decline, and as the Lewis fight would show in just 5 months time, McCall was eventually ripe for the pickings. If the fight were delayed another 6 or so months, Maskaev would have won the fight and he would have been a genius for taking the fight. Management cant be criticised for Maskaev being not good enough. I dont seem to recall McCalls chin being remembered to be as iron clad as it is today. He was more remembered as a Mike Tyson journeyman whose power finished Lennox Lewis (who the jury was still out on). Your next complaint is him taking the corey sanders fight. By this time he had already lost to Whittaker and Johnson and was a spent force trying to rise above journeyman status. I dont really see how sanders has this great chin you talk about. Sanders was stopped by Michael Grant and Jerry Ballard! He also had losses to Marion Wilson and Golota. He was below top 10 world class, but had strung together a few wins. If he coudlnt step up to the plate against him, a world title would be the last thing on his mind. He couldnt. Next criticism is Tua. Tua was an undefeated prospect and came 5 fights after the McCall knock out. If he was going to restablish himself as the best up and coming prospect, common sense says you do so by fighting another similar levelled prospect. This was before the Ike - Tua fight and while Tua had some power, he was a short fighter with an unproven chin, who had been knocked cold in the amateurs. It is only hindsight that tells us that Tua had such a great chin and was probably a lot better than he was rated at the time. The two Hasim Rahman fights (the second in particular) were big risks that you wouldnt expect Maskaev to pass. Ironically, He passed both tests and the second one is what won him his World title, which he probably only really earned, by beating Rahman the first time. You say he needs to stay a way from rock solid chins with stamina, but isnt that close to describing Sinan Samil Sam? Which outside of rahman is arguably his next best win. Oleg was never the best fighter in the world. He wasnt even one of the best 5 fighters. He was probably a top 10 fighter. He has a world title (where better fighters like Tua for example) for the simple reason that he was prepared to fight often and to fight the best fighters around. I see no possible justification to say that he was so poorly managed when fighters who outclassed him (Tua, Whittaker and Johnson) and have a good argument that they were better fighters were unable to put together a comparable career. If his management was bad, how bad was their management?
Let put him in with you. If your nice, I will get him to take it easy on you. Or else he lays you out cold.
Weak chin, decent skill, and one of the slowest heavyweights i have ever watched. With the exception of Rachman, he has lost every single time he has stepped up in competition. All in all, a good heavyweight when matched against the right opponent. I think his career did a spiral when lost to less opposition such as Sanders( and not the one that beat Klitschko) Lance ''Goofy'' Whitaker and a come from behind stoppage loss against a prime Tua, a fight in which he was winning. He has good wins over Rachman( twice) Tshabalala, Alex Steward and Jefferson though.
Very talented fighter who never reached his full potential for one reason or another. One of my favs.
Good skills but a below average chin at world level he was stopped numerous times early and not always by elite fighters either. He didn't really have many stand out wins but for some reason seemed to have Rahman's number, which surprised me a little. Because Rahman had above average power, infact he had a very high KO percentage. I'm surprised he wasn't able to chin Maskaev in 2 fights with his weak chin.
I remember speculation that he’d had more like 20 off-the-books pro fights in the hinterlands of Kazakstan before the McCall fight (and probably before his ‘official’ debut). Record-keeping and official sanction in the earlier days of the former Soviet republics was iffy at best, non-existent at worst. So it’s possible he was a 30-fight pro when he fought Oliver.
I think he was an over- achiever, the guy suffered some tough back to back knockout losses but still won a world title, he could have gone a lot farther if he only had a good chin.
Knocking Rahman through the ropes out of the ring was his greatest career moment, and it happened twice!
It does seem strange he KOed Rahman twice while Sanders lost to Rahman as I rate Corrie quite a bit higher than Oleg.
I remember the first time I saw him, there was speculation that he’d had 20-ish pro fights in the backwaters of the ungoverned outback of the former Soviet Union so it’s possible that his ‘debut’ was far from his first pro fight.