Boxing champ's camp is fighting mad

Oleg Maskaev is upset, and, as far as we know, his fury has nothing to do with Sacha Baron Cohen.

Oh sure, Maskaev might want to box the British actor upside his noggin for making fun of his native land with his clueless-but-comical faux Kazakhstani journalist Borat. But what really has Maskaev and his camp in a lather is how they perceive themselves so slighted by the World Boxing Council and promoter Don King entering Saturday night's title fight against Samuel Peter in Cancun, Mexico.

Maskaev, the West Sacramento transplant and reigning WBC heavyweight champ, says he should be afforded the amenities that come with holding the green belt. But neither he nor his promoter, Dennis Rappaport, are feeling the love. In fact, Rappaport said, "the cards are completely stacked against us," while speaking of "double-dealing duplicity" and "blatant bias toward Don King and Samuel Peter" by the WBC.

The latest insult? The WBC held a prefight media conference in Mexico City recently and did not invite Maskaev.

"It was to honor Peter (before) he became the undisputed winner of the WBC world title," Rappaport said last week from his fighter's training camp in West Palm Beach, Fla. "I mean, should we even show up or just mail in the belt?"

Then there was the issue of date and location of the bout. Initially, there were hopes that the fight could be held in Sacramento before talk of going back to Russia. Rappaport said he was told the fight would be Feb. 2 at New York's Madison Square Garden, and then Cancun materialized.

It has made for a less-than-optimal hurry-up-and-wait camp.

"We've been training for the fight for at least six months," Rappaport said. "How does a Russian-American fight a Nigerian in Mexico? Great question, unless they figure that's the easiest place to screw us."

Rappaport, who has many beefs with the Mexico City-based governing body over so many seeming slights and insults, is also steaming over a 55-45 percent purse split in favor of his fighter. The norm for title fights is a 70-30 split in favor of the champ.

So with a pending lawsuit against the WBC that includes the purse grievance, Rappaport wanted the governing body to recuse itself from selecting the officials for the fight to remove any chance of impropriety or conflict of interest. The request fell on deaf ears.

"We're going into the lion's den," Rappaport added. "It's quite a clear pattern … of bias (by the WBC) to Don King and selective enforcement of their own rules, when they do choose to enforce them at all."

Neither the WBC nor King is happy with Rappaport's claims.

WBC President José Sulaimán, in a statement to fightnews.com, said Rappaport is ungrateful and forgot how the WBC ruled in favor of a mandatory defense for Hasim Rahman against Maskaev, instead of against James Toney; then allowed Maskaev, after beating Rahman, to make a voluntary defense in Moscow instead of a mandatory defense; and allowed him to keep a part of the title despite not defending it for almost 15 months, as the WBC can strip a title holder after a year of inactivity.

"Neither I nor any officer of the WBC has ever received anything in exchange of a favor," Sulaimán said, "and we invite anyone, especially Rappaport, who knows us well for 25 years, to give a step forward with any evidence whatsoever to prove me wrong."

King, meanwhile, told The Bee that Rappaport was simply sandbagging on behalf of his client.

"When you're talking about Dennis Rappaport, you're talking about a 30-year history of him never being happy," King said. "We went through this with (Larry) Holmes and (Gerry) Cooney. You can jump through hoops, do backwards flips, turn inside out, and still he would never be satisfied."

Rappaport promoted Cooney in the 1982 megafight against Holmes.

"This is the multitude of his negotiations," King said. "Nothing goes right; everything is negative until he wins. He's an excuse fighter."

Top Rank chairman Bob Arum, who promoted 25 of Muhammad Ali's fights and has no stake in Saturday's main event, has criticized the current heavyweight division that he deems "horrible."

Yet he is intrigued by the Maskaev-Peter fight.

"It figures to be a lot better than the crap we saw (when Wladimir Klitschko sluggishly defeated Sultan Ibragimov for the International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Organization heavyweight titles)," Arum said. "I mean, Maskaev, who defeated my guy, Rahman, appears to be underrated. He is a tough guy, he throws a lot of punches, and I give him a real good shot with Peter. Peter can be the best of the heavyweights, but he's a lazy son-of-a-(gun) in training.

"If Peter is eating himself silly, and not really training the way he should, Maskaev is going to knock him out."

Which is how Maskaev claimed the WBC belt in the first place, with a stunning 12th-round stoppage of Rahman on Aug. 12, 2006. Maskaev's lone defense was voluntary, defeating Peter Okhello by unanimous decision in Moscow on Dec. 10, 2006.

Maskaev was initially scheduled to meet Peter last Oct. 6 at Madison Square Garden, but a back injury to the champ forced a postponement on Sept. 21. Three days later, the WBC board of governors voted Peter its interim champ. Peter fought on the reserved date, winning a unanimous decision over Jameel McCline.

Rappaport claims Peter is a dirty fighter who likes to throw "rabbit punches."

"If he does that," Rappaport said, "then Oleg's not going to be a sucker for anybody, and things are going to get ugly."

Wait, a heavyweight title bout in which the fighters actually fight?

As Borat might say: "High five. Very nice."

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