due to a hand injury he had sustained due to inadequate hand-wrapping during his training camp in the Poconos but the situation was resolved when Manny Masson took complete control of Peter's hand-wrapping. On October 6 at Madison Square Garden, Peter was knocked down 3 times in the second and third round by McCline, who had a height advantage of almost 6 inches. Though he seemed badly hurt in the third round, Peter managed to get up and eventually won the remaining rounds to win the match with a unanimous decision and retain his title as the WBC interim heavyweight title. As in the second Toney fight the key to Peter's victory was the use of his triple jab, footwork, head movement, and combination punching which is also attributable to his trainer Manny Masson. He kept Mccline off with the jab and then forced him backwards in the final minute of each round to score points. Mccline was perhaps tired from throwing so many power punches early on. Nevertheless, Peter outworked him for the better part of nine rounds. WBC heavyweight champion As interim champion, he was a mandatory challenger for the WBC belt held by Oleg Maskaev, who had been inactive since December 2006 due to injury. This long-anticipated fight took place on March 8, 2008, at the principal bullfighting venue in Cancún, Mexico. Peter won by TKO, with the referee stopping the fight with only a few seconds remaining in the sixth round. Peter used far less movement than he had in his previous two bouts against Maskaev, from the first round onwards both were trading heavy shots. In round three Peter staggered Maskaev and was then rocked in return. Maskaev had not been able to really hurt Peter. Peter used his jab to pursue Maskaev in the sixth and eventually broke through with a big right hand. Maskaev staggered backwards and Peter moved in for the finish. Peter continued to pummel Maskaev on the ropes while Oleg tried to motion to the referee about rabbit punches. The referee stepped in with seconds remaining as Maskaev staggered backwards into the corner. Peter was ahead on all three judges' scorecards at the time of the stoppage. Peter vs. Vitali Klitschko Following his victory over Maskaev, he publicly challenged IBF, WBO and IBO champion Wladimir Klitschko to a unification bout, which would have been Klitschko's second such fight, as well