BoxRec

15 Rounds Heavyweight Bout

Either Young outboxes Maskaev behind his quick jabs and counter combinations to take a decision or vice versa for Maskaev, who would land good bombs to take a decision. What do you guys think and who do you got?

IMO Jimmy was just too slick defensively and as a stick-and-move boxer, and for this reason, would have won a wide decision. No disrespect to Oleg, who I always liked, but I don't think he could have laid a glove on Jimmy.

Oleg always did best against strong, hard-hitting sluggers. That's when he'd break out his bag of tricks, set-up his own power shots and win. But Jimmy was simply that much trickier than Oleg.

Against 1970s top contenders, better fights for Oleg would have been against Ron Lyle, Earnie Shavers, Kallie Knoetze, and Duane Bobick. I don't know if he'd actually beat them, but at least he'd stand a much better chance than against Young.

Now that I think about it, another interesting fight for Oleg would have been against Joe Bugner, even though the latter was a boxer, not a puncher. I give Oleg a fair chance because Bugner tended to cover up excessively when confronted by powerful hitters.