[2] Following his knockout victory over Hasim Rahman to win WBC Heavyweight Championship, Oleg Maskaev made one defence in December 2006 against the unknown Okello Peter in Moscow, before entering into negotiations with the WBC Emeritus champion Vitali Klitschko, who had publicly announced that he intended to return to boxing three years since his last bout with Danny Williams.

Saying "José Sulaimán and the WBC have made it clear that they are honoring their commitment for Maskaev to defend his title against Samuel Peter immediately.

[5][6][7] On April 5, the teams of all three boxers agreed to give a green light to the Maskaev-Peter fight, under agreement that Vitali would be the first in line to face the winner.

[15][16] The referee Jose Guadalupe Garcia had been the third man in the ring when Oliver McCall stuned Lennox Lewis in their WBC heavyweight title clash in 1994.

Maskaev was backed up into the ropes and Peter followed up with a series of hard punches that dropped the champion prompting the referee to wave it off.