Samuel Peter scored a sixth round TKO over fellow heavyweight Oleg Maskaev, and lightweight Nate Campbell upset Juan "The Baby Bull" Diaz by split decision.
On Saturday, March 8, in Cancun, Mexico, Samuel Peter pounded Oleg Maskaev into a corner and blitzed him with hard rights until the referee had seen enough and stopped the bout at 2:56 of the sixth round.
Both Peter and Maskaev started the fight with cautious awareness of their opponent's power. By the second round, Maskaev began landing a jab as the fighters edged closer to one another, though still circling cautiously. The first heavy artillery was fired in round three by Peter, who drilled Maskaev with a right hand, then nearly punched himself out, allowing Maskaev to land a big right of his own that buzzed Peter.
Maskaev's habit of leaning to the right proved devastating when he caught a thunderbolt on the chin when Peter threw his right over Maskaev's lazy left.
The victory will likely give Peter another shot at Wladimir Klitschko, although the WBC seems intent on pulling brother Vitaly out of mothballs instead. Peter doesn't seem to care which one he fights.
"I'll fight him tomorrow," said Peter when asked, successively, about fighting each of the Klitschkos. Peter's record improves to 30-1 with 23 KOs while Maskaev's record contracts to 34-6 with 26 KOs.
Nate Campbell vs Juan Diaz Fight Results
In another great fight among small fighters, Nate Campbell charged out of his corner in the first round and proceeded to put a good, old-fashioned, schoolyard whooping on Juan Diaz to collect the WBO, WBA, and IBF Lightweight Championship belts by a well deserved split decision. The judges scores were 116-111 and 115-112 for Campbell and 114-113 for Diaz. Suite 101 had a comfortable 118-109 for Campbell.
Diaz, the crowd, and betting, favorite, seemed to be in his element when Campbell started the fight in Diaz's chest throwing bodyshots and hooks with controlled abandon.
Famous for his non-stop pressure and high volume punch output, Diaz matched Campbell almost shot for shot in the first few rounds, but as the middle of the fight closed in, Campbell's greater power and relentless body attack began to slow the 24-year-old champion.
In the sixth round the referee inexplicably deducted one point from Campbell for an unintentional headbutt that opened a cut over Diaz's left eye, though the cut was clearly caused by a deftly delivered left hand on the inside. Campbell seemed unfazed by the deduction and went back to work breaking Diaz down.
The last several rounds saw Diaz's punch output drop markedly while the thirty six-year-old Campbell, if anything, looked stronger as the rounds rolled by.
A badly cut and swollen left eye prevented Diaz from seeing Campbell's rights, which led to the grossly misshapen mask that became Diaz's face by night's end.
