Ivaylo Gotzev Talks about Sam Peter

Jerry Glick reporting: Samuel “The Nigerian Nightmare” Peter became the WBC “Interim” Heavyweight Champion when yet another opponent disappointed him. WBC Champ Oleg Maskaev backed out of their scheduled clash with a back injury. Peter thought that he had a fight for the World Heavyweight Title, albeit the WBC’s version, in his grasp but it disappeared when Maskaev stayed home. The WBC then declared Peter to be the interim champion.

Instead Peter faced, long in the tooth challenger, Jameel “Big Time” McCline, a modern day version of Jersey Joe Walcott. For those who do not read boxing history books, Walcott finally won the title in his fifth attempt when he knocked out former two time conqueror, Ezzard Charles in seven.

If that holds true for the 6’6” McCline next time will be the charm; if ever there is a next time for the 37 year old veteran.

This reporter had the good fortune to talk to Sam Peter’s manager Ivaylo Gotzev about the fight, the WBC, and future plans for Peter.

The Peter camp, Gotzev, promoter Dino Duva, Peter, et al feel that it’s Peter who has been available each time a fight was proposed. Peter, therefore, is the true champion, not Maskaev.

“He’s the real champion,” said Gotzev emphatically. “Due to the fact that he is the one who is, able, willing, and ready to fight; he fought one of the best, James Toney and beat him soundly in both fights. He’s done what he needs to do in the ring. Maskaev has been absent for a year. You do the math; one guy fights the other top fighters and wins, becomes the number one contender, and the other guy now shies away from him, who’s the champ in your book?”

With Peter’s luck and the way things have happened for him over the past year, would it surprise anyone if another fight with Maskaev falls through as well? If that happens there should be some consequences for the Russian according to Gotzev.

“They should because there should be a situation where if he stays out of the ring and holds onto the belt, that’s not recognition,” Gotzev surmises. “You get recognition when you get into the ring and defend your belt.”

“It is only common sense,” says Gotzev. “I think the rules call for that; that he will get stripped.”

“Anyway, we are just happy to be on top right now,” said Gotzev, “and Samuel showed terrific heart, determination, and he showed why we call him the champion.”

Now that he is a champion will the Nigerian Nightmare fight in his homeland, Nigeria?

“We’ll fight where ever the fight is promoted,” answered Gotzev. “In order to showcase his talent; to showcase a true heavyweight champ, we are looking for him to be a true Heavyweight World Champion and he’s going to fight around the world. He’s going to go to Africa, he’s going to go to Europe, he’s going to go to China, and Asia and all these places to defend his belt so the people will get a chance to get a gimps of him and enjoy it.”

Peter has not yet gone home to Nigeria to be greeted by his adoring fans as he steps off the plane, according to Gotzev. He is getting his things together and hopefully will get there in a month or so.

“He’s going to start running this Monday,” added Gotzev. “He really wants to stay in shape.”

“He wants to defend the title in the first part of next year. Maybe January or February,” said Gotzev.

As exciting as Peter is, it can be assumed that when he defends his belt that he will attract more than the 7102 fans that showed up for the McCline fight.

“For someone to be showcased it’s not for just one time, and that’s what we are going to do, in the future they’ll know who Samuel Peter is. They will say there’s the Heavyweight Champion of the World,” continued Gotzev. “He will gain popularity by being active by us showcasing Sam.”

“With Maskaev,” added Gotzev, “It’s hard to know who he is. He may be WBC Champion but people didn’t know. Sam has made a statement and he’s going to keep on making statements.”

“We are going to bring the Heavyweight Title back to the people, and put it back on the map,” said Gotzev.

With sarcasm oozing out of every pore of his large portly body, Don King told a crowd at the post fight press conference that he is concerned about this “disease” that has afflicted the Russian boxers.

“……..that affliction that is striking the Russian fighters like a plague, the back ache,” King said with a straight face. “I hope it won’t happen to the American athletes because this is a very painful disease.”

It is a little harder to tell whether Gotzev was sarcastic when he said, “The Russians truly are fragile,” said Gotzev. “They do fall apart. You know history is being written right now by these cancellations of fights.”

“That why we need a strong, able, and willing champion out there to defend and make a name for himself.”

What has gone on over the past year to Peter, particularly regarding the present situation, has been disconcerting to say the least. It has cost Peter and his team money, and it has certainly cost the fighter time out of one of his career, both monetarily and fistically speaking. His team is aware of what has happened to their man.

“Absolutely it will be addressed, and we are looking for a new purse arrangement altogether,” said Gotzev emphatically.

“And you know what? If there are any issues with Maskaev’s health, we are not going to wait around; we are going to take another option against someone else.”

“We are looking at this very carefully because Sam’s career is important for everyone,” said Gotzev. “We are going to see how it comes out in negotiations. If it doesn’t work out, we are looking straight ahead to the next challenge.”

Peter’s fight with McCline turned out to be a fight that had drama, excitement, power punching and a winner who had to literally rise to the occasion as Peter climbed off the canvas three times to win the decision. That was a sort of sweet revenge because he lost to Klitschko, his only defeat, against 29 wins with 22 knockouts, after putting the Ukrainian on the deck three times.

“When Sammy went down obviously there was big excitement and a lot of emotions involved, and he came out of it,” said Gotzev. “We know what happens now when he gets knocked down, he gets up, and that’s what a great champion does.”

“Everybody’s gone down,” explained the obviously proud manager. “What matters is, when they go down they get up and fight back.”

Is it possible, considering those knockdowns that he scored, that McCline did well enough to be in line for another shot?

“Nothing is excluded,” said Gotzev. “It was a great fight and there was a lot of drama. Every dog has his day and McCline had his,” said Gotzev.

“It was the best fight of his career and if the fans demand it, we are not shying away from a rematch and reason why is because it was a good fight. We would capitalize on the rematch and knock him out next time. McCline got lucky this time. He’s not in our immediate plans, but why not?”

Your promoter, Dino Duva, admitted that there will be issues about Sam’s boxing that will be addressed. Gotzev addressed that topic for this reporter.

“Sam is always picking up experience as he goes along. He did not have a long amateur career, six years,” Gotzev pointed out. “Basically he is learning on the job. Every big fight that he has he picks up something.”

Holyfield-Ibragimov is a fight of great interest for Peter and his team because it can produce an opponent for him. If it had been Holyfield who won, it would have most likely have created a mega-fight. Nevertheless, a fight with the tough Russian, Ibragimov is no gimme for either man.

“Oh yeah, we are definitely excited about that fight, and we believe that the young man should win there but you never know,” said Gotzev a day before the big fight in Moscow. “You can never question Evander’s heart. Why not take the winner of that. It’s a possibility.”

“Klitschko would be the biggest fight in heavyweight boxing,” said Gotzev. “And the biggest fight in boxing altogether, but that one is still premature because Sam needs to defend his title a couple of times and maybe unify the belt with Ibragimov or Chagaev. But Chagaev is in limbo because he too has some health issues.”

One thing is for sure, Peter has shown his focus. No ADHD here, just a huge bowl of resolve. Not many men could have listened to the WBC pull the carpet out from under them when after two wins over Toney they decide that Vitali Klitschko is somehow more deserving than Peter is of the title shot.

Sanity was restored and Peter was granted his shot, but fate still played a few tricks on Peter. Somehow he was able to walk into the title through the back door.

“Once again he stayed focused and came through,” said Gotzev. “This is just part of life. We can’t change it. It is what it is. You have to be patient and wait. Now he is in the driver’s seat.”

“Basically, to be there took a lot of hard work; the knockdowns and all that. This whole fight was controlled by Murphy’s Law; what could go wrong did go wrong,” added Gotzev. “He had two hand injuries, he had a perforated eardrum in camp, he also had a cold that took about two and a half weeks to shake off; he had to be on antibiotics.”

“We are looking forward to a great future for Samuel Peter,” said Gotzev. So are the fans, and anybody else who gives a damn about the sport of boxing.