Boxing: Boxers' big chance to hit paydirt

By PETER JESSUP

Auckland-based boxers Robbie Peden and Maselino Masoe get big opportunities to advance their professional fight careers this weekend with Las Vegas casino bouts being broadcast worldwide.

Undefeated IBF middleweight champion Masoe will be down in weight and up in class when he meets IBF United States champion Santiago Samaniego, a cousin to Roberto Duran, in a junior middleweight contest.

Masoe has had 14 wins in 14 fights, including 13 knockouts and has had two quick and impressive KOs in his two starts in the United States so far.

Should he beat Samaniego (29 wins, 5 losses, with 24 knockouts) he is in line to win a shot at the best junior middleweights in fights that will carry big paydays.

At 33, Masoe knows it is his big, and probably final, chance and has put everything into training, according to his manager, Kevin Barry.

Masoe, a three-time Samoan Olympian, and Peden have been in camp at Big Bear, in California, with Roger Bloodworth as they build up to the show at Frontier Casino this Sunday.

Peden, 10 years younger, also has a career-defining match-up, against Argentine Carlos Rios.

Peden has 15 wins, with nine knockouts and is undefeated. Rios is 48-3-2, with 30 knockouts.

His three losses were all at the hands of world champions in Luisito Espinosa, Floyd Mayweather and Ceasar Soto.

Peden is No 3-ranked in the division, and a win over the more experienced 28-year-old Rios would offer him the box seat for a world title bout.

The North American junior lightweight title bout will be only the second time he has been set to go over 12 rounds.

The other was his first-round knockout of Solomone Catarogo for the IBF Pan Pacific belt.

Peden's punching power has attracted plenty of interest in the United States, with both his previous fights being telecast by pay-to-view Fox Sports and Sunday's bout is top of the card for what promises a national audience in the 10 million range.

Both bouts are expected to feature on the ESPN-prepared programme Friday Night Fights shown by Sky Sport within the next fortnight.