where does Maskaev rank with the worst heayweight world titlists ever?

I don't consider him a champ, just a title belt holder. Average contender, nothing special. Very good fighter, but not a champ in any era. Same for most belt holders over the years.

 

The fight with Tua bothers me, honestly.

Maskaev controlled him the entire fight, convincingly. Gets caught with a hard combination late in the fight, goes down... And the fights instantly stopped.

Seemed like some people didn't WANT Maskaev to go places, period.

 

And what's worse is that Maskaev was 10-1, whereas Tua was 26-0. Maskaev's career track reminds me a little bit of Joe Walcott's. Both guys took a lot of hard fights early in their careers. I agree with some of the posters on this thread that Maskaev's actual reign as champion was a weak one, but I prefer to judge fighters based on what their whole career looked like. Oleg fought a lot of very tough guys. He wasn't a protected fighter at all the way that a lot of modern prospects so often are. He earned his right to get a shot at the title, regardless of it being a poor reign.