MOSCOW, December 31 (R-Sport) - Former WBC heavyweight champion Oleg Maskaev is unfit and should abandon his comeback, cruiserweight contender Grigory Drozd told R-Sport on Monday.
Maskaev, 43, returned to the ring after a three-year absence when he knocked out ex-contender Owen Beck on Sunday and said he was already eyeing more fights.
“I can only congratulate Oleg on the win, well done. But in my soul, as a colleague in this field, I’d like him to finish on this note and get on with something else,” said WBA International champion Drozd. “In any case, I think it’ll be hard for him to carry on.”
“I really respect Maskaev, I bow down before what he’s done in boxing. All of Russia knows that, the whole world.”
Drozd also questioned Maskaev’s fitness.
“He showed everyone that he’s still got a punch, that he’s still dangerous for a lot of people, but of course I’d have liked to have seen him in slightly different form in terms of speed and reflexes.”
In Beck, Maskaev faced an opponent who had lost his last eight fights, and Drozd said beating the Jamaican was no basis for a comeback.
“Beck is not the sort of person after whom you can make any sort of plans,” he said.
Maskaev, nicknamed “The Big O”, moved to a 37-7 record after his first win since March 2009.
"Pretty Boy" Drozd, 33, has built up a solid reputation at cruiserweight with a 36-1 record and won his then-vacant second-tier belt against Jean Marc Monrose earlier this month, but has yet to challenge for a world title.
