According to the latest boxing news, World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Samuel Peter (29-1, 22 KOs) has stated in an interview that he’s interested in fighting either Oleg Maskaev or Wladimir Klitschko (49-3, 44 KOs), and is hoping that he can get back in the ring within two months. From the looks of it, I’d say offhand that Peter is probably angry at himself for getting knocked down three times by the relative light-hitting Jameel McCline in their bout last weekend, a fight that Peter was on the verge of losing in the 3rd round.
Peter looked nothing short of horrible, like an unschooled amateur fighter going up against a seasoned professional. It doesn’t help his case any the fact that he threw a large number of fouls in the bout, enough for him to be disqualified if the referee had been interested in conducting his job in a proper manner. If it hadn’t been for the case of McCline tiring out – as usual – after the first three rounds, Peter would have likely been stopped early on. While Peter eventually was able to eek out the decision with a late surge, the damage to his reputation has been done already. Hence, Peter’s desire to take on Wladimir Klitschko, a fighter who already defeated Peter two years ago by a 12-round decision.
The desire to fight Wladimir would seem like a risky one to some people, but for Peter it makes a lot of sense, mostly because if he performs have way decent – and loses – he still looks good due to Wladimir’s status of being the top fighter in the heavyweight division. At the same time, it gives Peter a large payday, since the public would much prefer Wladimir as an opponent than to any of the other heavyweights in the division. More importantly, Peter doesn’t have to suffer the indignity of losing to one of the other challengers in the WBC, like Oliver McCall or Alexander Dimitrenko, to name just a couple. Both of the those fighters, by the way, I would consider much more dangerous than McCline, and have a great chance of defeating Peter. There’s also Maskaev, but his back problems will probably make it difficult for him to fight so soon against Peter.