SAMUEL PETER: A HEAVYWEIGHT EXPERIENCES HIS OWN NIGHTMARE, BUT WINS BY RESOLVE

By Chika Onyeani

African Sun Times, October 15-21, 2007

We had thought it was going to be a cake-walk, but did
we know, that this substitute fighter would give our champion a
nightmarish two rounds of boxing.  With the hoopla we had built around
Samuel Peter, who had a week earlier been declared the Interim WBC
Heavyweight Champion, added to the fact that the former champion, Oleg
Maskaev originally from Russia had been stripped of the championship
for not defending against Samuel “The Nigerian Nightmare” Peter, we
almost had heart attacks in rounds 2 and 3, when Samuel was knocked
down three times by this a-no-body-we-thought person, Jameel McCline. 
But only true champions recover and go on to win, and Samuel Peter did
exactly what a true champion does, recover and win. 

Samuel Peter, we should remember, had been named Interim Champion on
September 22.  Observed Samuel Peter, “Real heavyweight champions
fight, and that’s why I am not waiting for Maskaev.  I could have
waited to face him, (later), to protect my title but I am putting my
title on the line.”

“Tick, tick, tick,” Peter said motioning to his wristwatch. “The clock
is ticking on all heavyweights who don’t want to fight.  I’m a real
fighter.  I want to fight because that is what champions do.  I don’t
have a problem fighting anyone.  Even if the devil comes up and wants
to fight, I’m ready.”

So, it is that he was to face Jameel “Big time” McCline who had won 38
fights, 23 by knockouts, lost 7 and drew 3, who ironically was supposed
to have met Vitali Kitschko on Sept. 22 in Munich, Germany, but
Klitschko pulled out less than two weeks before the fight with an
apparent back injury , leaving the door open for McCline to face Peter.

But how did we get here, to this the most famous arena in the world?

Around the middle of August, 2007, I received a email message from the
Don King organization and the Madison Square Garden inviting me to a
press conference.  I wasn’t really interested in going or assigning
anybody else to the conference.  But on the day of the press
conference, I received a phone from a lady, to remind me about
conference.  Just non-challantly I asked her what the press conference
was about.  She blurted out, it is to announce a fight between Oleg
Mas… (something) and Samuel Peter.  I almost jumped out of my seat, and
shouted whaaat? She repeated the sentence.  And I said okay, we are
going to be there.  Immediately, I called my photographer in New York
and said meet me at the Madison Square Garden, ask them about Don
King’s press conference.

I jumped into my car and raced to New York, parked on $45 2-hour
parking lot and walked briskly to Madison Square Garden.  When I got
there, my photographer was already there, and I could hear Don King’s
voluble voice, reminding anybody who would listen that “Only in
America,” was what he has become be possible.  He was carrying all
kinds of flags, a consummate salesman, stroking everybody’s ego, making
everybody feel that without them he couldn’t survive, when the opposite
is the truth.  There were three other Nigerians there that day,
filmmaker Tony Abulu, businessman John Erike, and the indefatigable
protocol officer at the Nigerian Consulate, Sunmonu Bello-Osagie.
Anyway, from that press conference and meeting and talking with Samuel
Peter, we began a massive coverage of the fight scheduled between Oleg
Maskaev, a Russian emigre to America, who was the champion.  Both
fighters were introduced and each boasted of what would become the
outcome of the fight - “a win for me,” each one side.

Then two weeks later, another press conference was held to solidify the
fight and preparations.  However, two days later I received a very
disturbing email, which I won’t reveal here, but suffice it to say that
I was concerned about the future of that fight.  Then the next day,
without looking at the breaking news, I didn’t realize that the fight
had been called off.  I went on my radio program, “StraightTalk with
Chika Onyeani on the AllAfricaRadio, and talked about the upcoming
fight.  Even over the weekend, I still didn’t realize that the fight
had been cancelled.  It was while I was at the “Nigeria Meets the
World” conference held by ThisDay that I was hinted about the fight
being cancelled.  By then, of course, the World Boxing Council had
already stripped Oleg Maskaev the championship and temporarily awarded
to Samuel Peter.  Maskaev gave his excuse for withdrawing from the
fight due to back injury.  But most people knew that he had been
avoiding fighting against Samuel Peter, hence the WBC sanctioned and
stripped him  of the title.  So, I said to myself, Samuel’s prediction
of bringing the heavyweight championship belt to Africa has already
been fulfilled.

But the Don King Productions and the Madison Square Garden
organizations had invested too much already in the fight, so a
substitute fighter had to be found to challenge Peter for the title. 
In comes Jameel McCline, who had been training to fight another Russian
who also had withdrawn from fighting him due to another back injury. 
Don King called it infectious Russian back injuries.

You know, individuals might not know this, but no African has ever won
the heavyweight championship belt in boxing.  The only times we had
come close to title fights were with Ikemefula Ibeabuchi and Henry
Akinwande.  Ibeabuchi, one of the most promising heavyweights, with
knockout punches better than Mike Tyson, was sentenced on January 25 to
5-30 for “battery with intent to commit a crime and sexual assault Nov.
8 in connection with an incident with an outcall (prostitute) girl in a
Strip hotel-casin in July, 1999.”  He is still in prison, for what was
thought to have been a setup which he fell for.

Akinwade himself had been scheduled to fight Lenox Lewis for the
heavyweight champion at Ceasar’s Palace, Las Vegas, but during the
fight, he forgot how to box and continued to hold Lenox Lewis.  The
referee warned him 6 six times, before stopping the fight and declaring
Lewis the winner.  Lewis went on to become a great champion and retired
without defeat.  The Nevada Athletic Commission decided to withhold his
$1 million purse.  He is now popularly known as “Higging” Akinwade.

Hence we were all worked up about this fight, which would bring the
title to Africa.  Of course, Don King had put Africa on the map when it
wasn’t fashionable to do so, with his first “Rumble in the Jungle,” and
we were campaigning for the “Rumble in the Jungle II/”

On Saturday 6, all that mattered was the fight.  I had a wedding to
attend to, but reluctantly accompanied my wife, and as soon as the
wedding vows were over, I rushed out there to return home to change for
the fight.  At the Garden, I was happy to see that all members of the
African Sun Times had been accredited and their names taped on the
chair, just three chairs away from the ring.  When I got there, Polish
powerhouse Andrew Golota was beating the hell out of Kevin “The Clones
Colossus” McBride (why do they have all those high-falutin names).  
The referee stopped the fight in 2:42 minutes of the 6th round.  The
other fight was also a TKO but in the 8th round.  I wasn’t really too
interested.  We wanted the main event, the Peter vs. McCline fight.

After all the ceremonies, Peter and McCline entered the ring.  The
preliminaries were concluded, and both fighters touched gloves.  Peter
started aggressively, chasing opponent around the ring, always moving
forward and not backing away.  Jameel on his part, seemed to have
decided from onset to fight a survival fight, not to make mistakes,
survive the fight and fight another day.  Peter, on the other hand, I
believe, was trying to establish his championship credentials, not
getting the belt was not a fluke by any means.  Added to the fight
history of Jameel, the last he fought just collapsing at the end of 3rd
round, without a punch from his opponent.  Peter easily won this round.

Peter was winning the second round, when just before the end, Jameel
connected and sent Peter to the canvass.  You could hear the hush that
fell, an unbelievable event, and Peter was saved by the bell.  In the
third round, Jameel connected again, twice, and both times, Peter went
down.  Everybody was like, what is going on here.  We were all shouting
at Peter to start holding him, like the guy had been holding him.  To
me, it was like a deja vu again.  Last time, I went to the Garden for a
boxing tournament, it was to see Dick Tiger fight Bob Foster, and
Foster knocked him out cold in the 4th round.  It was one of the most
devastating things for us in May of 1968.  When at one of those press
conferences, they trotted out the big famous boxers, somebody asked
whether I had had my photographer take Bob Foster’s photograph.  I
looked at the guy as if he was crazy, “Me, have Bob Foster’s photo
taken, no way Jose” I said.  So, here I was witnessing the same kind of
thing happening, a man who is 6’6” and weighs 267 lbs against our own
man who is 6’1” and weighs 249 lbs.  It wasn’t a pleasant thought.  I
was tempted to get up and leave.

But it is during adversity that you know who a champion is.  Samuel
Peter demonstrated his strength of character because from the next
round, 4th, it was all Peter.  McCline thought just having knocked the
guy down 3 times was enough to win the fight.  He clung on to Peter as
they were twins, refused to box and when Peter would hit him, he would
hold both of Peter’s hands.  Whenever the round ended and Jameel was
coming to his seat, he would appear as he was almost collapsing, out of
breath.

Even at the end, there were doubts as to whether had won.  We were even
saying that a split decision might cause a riot, little did we know
that the judges were taking note of the fact that McCline had stopped
boxing from the 4th round.  And I remember some of the experts saying
at the end that the most rounds McCline could get was four out of the
12 rounds.  And when the decision came, with the judges scoring the
fight: 115-112, 115-111, 115-110 unanimously in favor of Samuel Peter,
the Nigerian contingent as small as we were roared with approval, while
of the Americans booed meekly, not with a loud protest, which means
they agreed with the judges’ decision.

What mattered right there and then for us after the decision was that
Samuel “The Nigerian Nightmare” Peter, even having suffered his own
nightmare at the hands of Jameel McCline was still the WBC Heavyweight
Champion, the first time in the history of boxing for Africa. 

Now, we await the 2nd “Rumble in the Jungle” from the tireless “Only in America” promoter Don King.

Chika Onyeani is the author of the explosive and No.1 bestselling book,
Capitalist Nigger: The Road to Success, as well as the author of the
blockbuster novel, The Broederbond Conspiracy.  Onyeani is a Fellow of
the New York Times Institute of Journalists

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