In an earlier issue, Fight Times had a brief inclusion on Maselino Masoe, his dedication to boxing and his rise to the big time in the professional arena. We were surprised at some of the negatives that followed his success and these are our thoughts on the matter and Maselino's story of hard earned success.
New Zealand can hardly be described as a country renowned for producing professional world boxing champions, whether they are citizens or residents. Fight Times would like to bring a few important points to the attention of any of the knockers of Maselino's fantastic achievement. First of all Maselino is Samoan by birth and a proud Samoan who has chosen New Zealand as his home. To capture a world title in the individual professional sport of boxing and a prestigious WBA title is the pinnacle of the sport for any fighter. While the knockers could come up with many arguments why an individual fighter should not be fighting for such titles. The title became vacant when William Joppy surrendered it after losing to Bernard Hopkins.
The reality was that the promoter Don King and the managers decided on the bout and it is their decision that counted. Fortunately they knew a lot more than the arm chair experts that gave Maselino no chance of victory. Then the outcome is decided in the ring and it is the fighters that must put themselves on the line.
Maselino did just that on May 1st 2004 at Miami Florida coming from down under where he may well have been relatively unknown to the majority of the world professional boxing audience, but they sure knew who he was within two rounds.
Maselino, at age 37 years and 11 months, not only won the title but in the space of two rounds or around four minutes he sent the number five ranked WBA fighter to the canvas no less than three times. He took his chances when the opportunity came along to achieve his goal and the result was definite and could not be disputed. He put his high profile top five opponent away period and has since been described in the fight game in the US as a very aggressive powerful puncher.
Knockers must remember the results that have been achieved by other non-New Zealand born sports persons in rugby, netball and other sports. I don't see anyone wanting to disclaim victories or championships they have won or been part of winning. Maselino has done something that most fighters can only dream of and this is his story.
Maselino Masoe was born in Western Samoa in 1966. His father Masoe and older brother Mika and two uncles were all boxers as well and influenced Maselino with his career in the ring. Maselino's brother Chris is a top rugby player who plays for the Hurricanes and has played for NZ in sevens.
From age five Maselino was training in boxing and competing in American Samoa in the amateur ranks as soon as he was old enough for competition. All Maselino's amateur fights were in American Samoa where he had 86 bouts winning both South Pacific and Oceania titles.
In 1997 Maselino moved to New Zealand to further his boxing career by turning professional. He had visited New Zealand before to fight and saw a future for himself in the professional ranks there. Maselino ended his amateur career at the 1996 Olympics and that was the third time he had represented his country at the Olympics.
The first two Olympics both he and his brother had competed representing American Samoa. In 1988 and 1992 Maselino made it to the quarterfinals and in 1996 he lost his first round of competition fight.
Since 1997 Maselino has racked up an impressive fight record of twenty-six fights for twenty-four wins and only two loses. He has fought the best down under had to offer and then fought in the US including three times on the under card to David Tua fights.
He had eight fights in the US, in total, prior to his title shot and had won six of the eight.
His losses were to top rate fighters and after this he returned to NZ and then fought for the vacant Pan Asian Boxing Association title, winning it which brought him back into contention with the WBA and saw his ranking move up into the top five.
His previous fights included knockout wins against Sam Hill, Lionel Ortiz, David Lopez and Tim Shocks.
His losses were to Santiago Samaniego, a former world light middleweight world champion, and Tito Mendoza both quality opposition. Against Samaniego he lost because of an injury and lost to Mendoza by way of a round three TKO.
In 2004 Maselino made history when he got a shot at the WBA world middleweight title when he fought Evans Ashira a Kenyan born Danish fighter. Ashira was undefeated going into the Masoe fight having previously won the IBF Intercontinental title and having stopped top line fighter Jerry Elliot in Germany.
Maselino got the call up from the US and accepted the challenge immediately. He increased his training in preparation for the title shot and before long found him self in the US of A and verging on the big time of boxing.
The press conference went well with both fighters showing each other respect and confident they could claim the title. His opponent may well have looked at this fight being a stepping-stone to fighting Bernard Hopkins and had little knowledge of who Maselino was or whom he had previously fought.
Maselino says the first round went well for him and he felt confident he took the round. Round two proved the power he has in his hands when he stopped Ashira to capture the world middleweight title.
Maselino has been in full training since winning the title belt and is ready to defend it as soon as an opponent is signed to fight him. Maselino is a very quiet confident friendly professional but he said winning the title is some thing very special to him and he will never forget that moment.
Maselino considers David Tua like his brother and has been a close friend since he first met him at the Oceania Championships in 1992 at Apia Samoa. He even trained and sparred with David when he first turned professional and the two keep in close contact and are each other's greatest supporters.
Maselino, when asked what his future plans are, is very straight and to the point, he wants to defend his title against the best and he wants to fight the number one considered fighter in his weight division, Bernard Hopkins.
Maselino was preparing for a fight late June that did not eventuate and now will change his training resume by reducing the amount of sparring he does until his next opponent is named and the fight date set. This is his standard maintenance training programme outline at present.
He starts his training day with an early morning 6km run and then he works on his strength with weight training sessions and a lot of shadow boxing. Maselino maintains his own training resume from day to day but when he is confirmed to fight his trainer Noel Thornberry, from Australia, takes charge of his preparation.
Maselino had along with Sean Sullivan undergone special training with the Thornberry boys who live at Gatton in Queensland before his title shot. The likelihood is he will defend his title against German fighter Felix Sturm in the near future.
Maselino is married with four children three daughters and a son and lives in South Auckland.
When I asked Maselino what his favourite punches were he said he could knock out opponents with either hand and while he did not prefer one punch over another he had achieved good results with his right straight and left hook.
At thirty-nine years of age Maselino has had a long and successful career highlighted by his world title win. He works hard at his trade and keeps in great shape and says he has one or two more good years left in him yet. Maselino would dearly like to fight in New Zealand but realistically with the big money required to promote fights at the professional world title level it would not be likely to stage such an event in New Zealand.
He has signed a three-year contract with Don King and said he is the man that makes things happen in big time professional boxing. The following is a commentary of how Maselino Masoe won the WBA world middleweight title.
The fighter's profiles:
Evans 'African Warrior' Ashira, 158 ½ pounds
23-0 – 13 by way of KO'S
Maselino Masoe, 159 ½ pounds
25-2 – 24 KO's
Miami Florida May 1st 2004
Ashira started strong with a good three-punch combination followed up by an overhand right to the head and a left body hook. Masoe covered up well and was finding his distance and probing for openings.
Masoe was getting his rhythm and working out his range and timing and at just over a minute of the first round he landed a hard lead right hand on Ashira's chin. Seconds later Masoe landed a hard clean left hook to the jaw.
Centre ring the fighters exchanged punches and it was evident that Masoe had more power in his punches. Under 30 seconds to go in round one Masoe hurt Ashira with a straight right to the jaw followed up by a left uppercut to the chin and an over hand right to the head that put Ashira not only on the back foot but landed him in the corner against the ropes.
Ashira found himself fighting to get off of the ropes and as he did Masoe landed two more hard rights. From the clinch Masoe landed a right hand that sent Ashira to the canvas for the first knock down as the bell rung to end round one.
Ashira hit the canvas hard ending on his back for the count from referee Tommy Kimmons. He managed to get back to his feet by the four count but was not in good shape and staggered back to his corner after taking the mandatory eight count.
Round Two Ashira attempted to start as he had in round one but within seconds Masoe landed another lead overhand right that dropped Ashira to one knee. He got up by the count of four, but the writing looked on the wall for him, as he stood right in front of the powerful Masoe. Seconds later in round two, with still two minutes to go in the round, Masoe landed another hard right to the head, followed by two left hooks. Ashira unceremoniously landed on his backside initially and then flat on his back. The referee wasted no time in stopping the fight and after 44 seconds of round two there was a new WBA world middleweight champion, Maselino Masoe.
Nonone could dispute who had won or how he had won it was convincing and definite with the shorter Masoe showing his punching power. Maselino is a very humble and friendly man and fight times thanks him for giving us this interview and wishes him the very best for the defence of his title and the rest of his career in the ring.
