“My fight with Oleg Maskaev, that many fans all over the world have been waiting for, unfortunately will not take place. The main reason that negotiations terminated was due to unreasonable ambitions of both Samuel Peter and Oleg Maskaev, which made it impossible to find a compromise that satisfied all of the parties taking part in negotiations.  These negotiations dragged on for three months. On Wednesday, April 4th, we had received a message, in which one of the main partners of the negotiation process – HBO, informed us that with only eight weeks remaining before the fight, it would be impossible for them to produce a live transmission of the fight.  Therefore HBO made the final decision, announcing that it would be impossible for me to face Oleg Maskaev on June 2nd.

"Statements by Oleg’s promoter, Dennis Rappaport, that supposedly Vitali Klitschko had refused to carry out a fight against Maskaev, are absurd. I would like to point out once again that the only reason I decided to continue my sports career was to retake the championship title that I previously held, as well as to fulfill our dream of having two brothers as heavyweight champions of the world.

"My team gave their utmost and was ready to make any reasonable compromise so that this fight would take place as soon as possible. However, due to reasons outside of our control, carrying out this fight has become impossible. I do not desire to turn to sports arbitration court since this case could drag on and the fight would get postponed for some time. I don’t want to block any fights in heavyweight division, or deprive fans of much anticipated events. I want to give Oleg Maskaev and Samuel Peter a chance to face each other as soon as possible, so that I can face the winner. The WBC has already spoken to Maskaev and Peter’s promoters about organization of their fight. I hope that Oleg’s fight against Samuel would take place in near future, as this would allow me to face the winner in the fall of this year.”