Would a younger Maskaev have beaten Peter?

Now granted, Oleg Maskaev was never the most fluid fighter but the question stansds. Would a Maskaev circa 1999 have been able to beat the Samuel Peter that stopped him last year? I say yes. I like Sam Peter and don't wanna take away from his victory but man, Maskaev was like a statue in there.

 

I understand what you're saying but how much of the fight was there to seize considering that most of Maskaev's losses were early KO's? Maskaev wasn't being dominated against Kirk Johnson when he caught him and he was beating T-Rex Sanders before he got caught. I don't really remember what the first 2 rounds of the Whitaker fight were like. These KO's were basically lightning attacks without any precipitating shifts in momentum that would indicate that they would take place. The opponent seized the fights then and there with emphatic KO's but not necessarily neutralizing Maskaev. Maybe they had done so in subtle ways but those KO's came out of nowhere for the most part in competitive fights that Maskaev was ether winning or at least on even terms in.

 

Furthermore, the McCall fight lasted less than a round so there was no momentum established on either fighter's part. McCall just took the green Maskaev out.

 

I agree with the fact that he didn't like power, which still makes the fact that he was able to take Rahman's best punches rather puzzling. I guess when you've got a guy's number you can take his best regardless of his power.

 

By the time Peter got to him Maskaev was too old and stiff to get out of the way of those telegraphed right hands. You hit it on the head with the hooks.

 

Yes Chambers does deserve a lot of credit for beating Peter. That's what an excellent amateur pedigree will do. It can help a smaller guy neutralize a big puncher. It's one thing to be able to punch hard but it's a completely different thing to be able to land a hard punch. To us it may have looked to be a daunting task for Chambers but the truth was that he knew what he was doing by accepting Peter as an opponent and he must have been ecstatic that his task would be that much easier because Peter came in completely overweight. That amateur background comes in very handy when faced with a clubber like Peter. The people watching at home were probably more nervous about Peter landing something big than Eddie was. For him it was just like driving a car. You know when to brake and you know when to give it some gas.