by James Slater – Former WBC heavyweight champion Oleg Maskaev’s words came back to haunt him last night in Sacramento. Going into his supposed “tune-up” bout with the much younger Nagy Aguilera, the 40-year-old said he would not suffer the same fate Roy Jones met when he was iced inside a round by Danny Green in Australia last Wednesday. But this is exactly what happened; as Aguilera stunned Maskaev as severely and as quickly as Green stunned his 40-year-old betting favourite of an opponent. There have been a number of 1st round KO’s (or TKO’s) just lately; what with Green KO 1 Jones, Amir Khan’s recent blast out of Dmitriy Salita and now Aguilera KO 1 Maskaev. Is the trend going to continue tonight?
We have no less than three big bouts taking place tonight, two of them world title fights – with Vitali Klitschko-Kevin Johnson boxing in a WBC heavyweight title clash in Switzerland, Timothy Bradley and Lamont Peterson meeting in California in a WBO light-welterweight clash, and we also have the all but demanded Juan Diaz-Paulie Malignaggi rematch, also at 140-pounds, in Chicago. Could either of these three match-ups end with one guy winning by a 1st round stoppage?
We can pretty much cross the Diaz-Malignaggi fight off the list, as a one-round win for either guy would be a huge shock indeed. Diaz has scored three 1st-round wins in his time, but the last time was way back in 2001. As for Malignaggi, the boxer with just five KO’s to his name has just one 1st-round win, this taking place in “The Magic Man’s” pro debut, also back in 2001. The rematch looks like going all 12 rounds, just as the first meeting between the two did.
Timothy Bradley has three 1st-round KO’s to his name, and he has also been put down in the opening round of a fight – could we see a win inside three minutes – either way – in Bradley’s clash with Lamont Peterson? For what it’s worth, Peterson has five one-round wins to his name; the last one taking place in 2007. It sure would be a stunner to see either 140-pounder winning that quickly tonight, but it could happen.
As for the big men, Vitali Klischko and Kevin Johnson; anything can happen when the heavies are in action. Klitschko, the far bigger banger of the two men, has an impressive six 1st-round KO’s on his record (he also has a whopping sixteen 2nd-round KO wins to his name). As untested as Johnson is, we can’t rule out a quick strike from “Dr Iron Fist,” even though he hasn’t starched an opponent inside three minutes in almost nine years.
As for the man who has had his punching power, or lack of, criticised, Johnson , somewhat surprisingly perhaps, has four 1st-round wins on his pro record. But no-one in their right mind would predict a quick KO win for “King Pin;” not against the iron-chinned champion.
It would be a surprise to see either of the six fighters fighting tonight winning inside a round; but then nobody expected Aguilera or Green to win that quickly and they did!