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Former WBC heavyweight champion Oleg Maskaev was knocked out by unheralded Nagy Aguilera in the first round of what was supposed to be a tuneup match for the aging Russian. Aguilera dropped Maskaev twice in the round before the referee stopped the fight, giving Aguilera a TKO victory, his first over a name fighter.
At 40, Maskaev's age finally caught up with him, though he looked old even in losing to Sam Peter early in 2008. Since then he easily won two bouts against fighters more experienced than Aguilera, and while his chances against a real contender looked dim, most assumed he would win this fight easily.
But Aguilera—23 according to Boxrec.com and 25 according to some sources—had other plans than to be Maskaev's stepping stone to another title shot. Just 14-2 against questionable competition, the Dominican fighter overwhelmed his much older adversary.
Maskaev, ranked #16 in the latest SportsRatings Heavyweight Boxing Top 100, will fall out of the top 50 in next month's rankings. With Aguilera's surprise win he will debut in the top 25, but due to his previous body of work it remains to be seen if he will continue to rise in the ranks, or whether he happened upon a fighter who was ripe to be exposed as over the hill.
The result complicates the WBC's top contenders list; Maskaev was to battle Ray Austin in an eliminator for a title shot against Vitali Klitschko. He had been boasting about having stopped Klitschko in the first round in an amateur fight nearly 20 years ago. Now, he has to consider retiring after such a one-sided loss to a relatively unknown fighter.
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