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. Peter poses with his belt at the pre-fight press conference.

You know, individuals might not know this, but no African has ever won the heavyweight champion 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 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, it was to see Dick Tiger fight Bob Foster, and Foster knocked him out 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 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 ap- proval, while of the Americans booed meekly, not with a loud protest, which means they agreed with the judges’ decision.