Posted on 3/7/2008 8:55:59 PM

Boxing Betting Will the Real WBC Champion Please Remain Standing

By Charles Jay

On Saturday in Cancun - and please try to follow along here - WBC heavyweight champion Oleg Maskaev of Kazakhstan faces off against WBC interim heavyweight champion Samuel Peter of Nigeria in what could essentially be described as the "undisputed" World Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight title. The bout is scheduled for 12 rounds and will be televised on HBO.

BetUS Boxing Betting Odds

WBC Heavyweight Title

March 8 -- Cancun, Mexico

SAMUEL PETER -500

OLEG MASKAEV +350

OVER 6.5 ROUNDS -150

UNDER 6.5 ROUNDS +110

For boxing betting purposes, let's size up the contestants:

The only blemish on the record of PETER (29-1, 22 KO'S), the -500 favorite in the BetUS boxing betting odds, has been a twelve-round decision loss in September 24 to Wladimir Klitschko in which he knocked Klitschko down three times. Before that he had been cementing his reputation as a fierce puncher, taking out people like Taurus Sykes, Yanqui Diaz and Jeremy Williams rather easily. But after suffering the defeat to the Ukranian, he had to go back to square one to some extent. There was some controversy in a very close split decision win over the much smaller, slicker James Toney (September 2006), and a rematch was ordered. The second time around, Peter looked much sharper from a technical standpoint, and won a unanimous decision by eight points on two judges' scorecards and eleven points on the other.

In the last year, Peter has fought just once, a decision over Jameel McCline in which he had to get up off the deck. Peter has been so inactive because he has been trying to enforce his mandatory status as challenger to Maskaev, which he earned in the fights with Toney. When Maskaev made himself unavailable due to injury, the WBC declared that the Peter-McCline fight was for its "interim title," which brings us to where we are right now.

The journey of MASKAEV (34-5, 26 KO'S), the +350 underdog at BetUS, has been more circuitous. He has been around since 1993, and was fighting capable foes very early. He lost to Oliver McCall in only his seventh pro fight, and five fights later was stopped in eleven rounds by then-undefeated David Tua, though he was ahead on one of the scorecards at the time. The biggest win was probably an eighth-round KO of Hasim Rahman in November of 1999, in which he knocked the future heavyweight champion completely out of the ring.

But after a few more knockout losses, Maskaev kind of disappeared from the radar screen. When he emerged, he climbed himself back up the ladder through the "back roads" of boxing, fighting in relatively obscurity, until getting a rematch with Rahman in August of '06, this time with the WBC title on the line. Rahman fought a rather dumb strategic fight, choosing again to trade with Maskaev. That was a mistake, as Maskaev ended it in the 12th round. He's fought just once since, a 12-round decision over the so-so Peter Okhello in Moscow. It has been almost 15 months since Maskaev fought, as he's been plagued by injuries.

Maskaev has always been the type of fighter who is bothered by a technically proficient fighter who can jab. You could see in the second fight with Rahman, for example, that whenever Rahman started to throw his jab, he had Maskaev almost completely at his mercy. There is nothing slick or craft about Maskaev; he comes forward and wants to bang.

The flipside is that he can match up well with just about any fighter who comes to him. And even though he has been knocked out in every one of his professional losses, he usually has to take a bit of a pounding first. Any opponent who wants to fight him needs to be ready to be hit in return - hard. And one of the things I've been hearing from my contacts is that they had a heck of time getting Peter to do his running in camp. Look - even though Peter demonstrated more boxing ability in his second fight with Toney, that doesn't mean he is a scientific boxer. And he had some anxious moments when hit on the button by McCline. He's going to be in for a war of attrition here. I know that Maskaev is 39 years old, but I like the way he has taken advantage of his "second life" in boxing. And though the period of inactivity is potentially problematic, Puncher-types who don't rely as much on timing as technicians don't seem to be compromised as badly by it.

I'll take a shot with the underdog that has a real, live chance here. That's Maskaev, priced at +350 in the BetUS boxing betting odds.

JAY'S PLAY: MASKAEV (+350) ***

(Graded on a scale of 1-4 stars)

Betting on boxing has never been so easy and you can get your bets in now in the BetUS sportsbook. Go to Other Sports: Boxing. Find tons of props on the fight and the fighters in the Future / props section as well!

(Charles Jay of www.eBookies.com is a former manager, matchmaker and color commentator in professional boxing. He currently pulls no punches in the BetUS Locker Room)