Maselino Masoe

Maselino Masoe
Data
Birth Name	Maselino Francis Masoe
Weight class	medium weight
nationality	New Zealand
birthday	June 6, 1966
place of birth	Apia
style	Left-hand boom
size	1.73 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	36
Victories	30th
Knockout victories	28
Defeats	6th

Maselino Francis Masoe (born June 6, 1966 in Apia , Samoa ) is a former New Zealand professional boxer of Samoan origin and former WBA world middleweight champion.

Maselino Masoe was born in Apia, the capital of the western part of the Samoan Islands , and is the older brother of Chris Masoe , a rugby union player. His father, older brother Mika and two of his uncles are also boxers. He started boxing at the age of five and has played 86 amateur fights in his homeland. In 1993 he won the 16th Oceanic Light Middleweight Championships. For American Samoa he took part in three summer Olympic Games; 1988 welterweight and 1992 and 1996 light middleweight. In 1988 he lost to the US World Champion Kenneth Gould in the round of 16 and finished in 9th place. In 1992 he was defeated in the quarterfinals by György Mizsei from Hungary and reached 5th place, while in 1996 he lost in the first fight against the Tunisian Mohamed Marmouri. His brother Mika also took part in the Olympic Games in 1988 and 1992 and twice reached the quarter-finals in the light heavyweight division.

In 1997 he moved to New Zealand and became a professional middleweight boxer. He quickly made a name for himself as a tough puncher; so he won his first 14 fights, 13 of them by knockout. He won the Oceanic Championship in February 1998 and the Pan-Pacific Championship of the IBF in November of the same year .

On March 5, 2000, he suffered the first defeat of his professional career in Las Vegas , when he was knocked out in round 5 against the later WBA world champion and equally powerful Santiago Samaniego (29 wins, 24 of them knockout) ) lost. After four more knockout victories, he was defeated on December 10, 2000 in Illinois, the Central American WBA champion Tito Mendoza by technical knockout in round 3.

On December 2, 2001 he won the Pan-Asian championship title by technical knockout in round 6 against Peter Mokomoko and defended him six times by knockout, which finally gave him the chance of a world championship fight.

On May 1, 2004, he boxed for the vacant WBA world title against the undefeated Kenyan Evans Ashira, who lives in Denmark, and won the title by technical knockout in round 2. However, he lost it in his first title defense on March 11th 2006 by losing points to Felix Sturm . The duel against Sturm was initially balanced. Sturm gained advantages in the following years and thus ensured a point lead, which he only defended at the end of the fight and increasingly withdrew from the fight in order to prevent the risk of a lucky punch . For this tactical defensive behavior, Sturm, although he had won the title, was criticized by the audience and whistled.

On July 8, 2006, he boxed against Randy Griffin for the renewed chance of the WBA title, but lost on points. After moving to the next higher weight class, the super middleweight division, he won the New Zealand championship title in June 2008 and the WBO Asian-Pacific championship title in November.

On April 25, 2009 he boxed against the undefeated Károly Balzsay for the WBO world title, but lost by knockout in the 11th round.

predecessor	Office	successor
William Joppy	World Middleweight Boxing Champion ( WBA ) May 1, 2004 - March 11, 2006	Felix Sturm

Web links

• Profile at BoxRec
• Profile at fighttimes.com
• Maselino Masoe in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )