Russia’s Oleg Maskaev retained his World Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight crown on Sunday with a unanimous points decision over Ugandan Peter Okhello, the Reuters news agency reports.Maskaev dominated for much of the fight at Moscow’s Olympic arena but failed to land a knockout blow despite throwing a series of powerful punches in the last three rounds.

The U.S.-based Maskaev, who was granted Russian citizenship by a special decree from President Vladimir Putin on Saturday, improved his record to 34 victories against five defeats, while Okhello fell to 18-5.

WBC heavyweight champion Oleg Maskaev and his wife, Svetlana, celebrate after Maskaev's victory over Ugandan Peter Okhello. Photo: AP

It was the first heavyweight title fight held in Russia.

Maskaev, who was born to Russian parents in Kazakhstan, won the WBC belt with a 12th-round victory over Hasim Rahman in Las Vegas in August.

In his first title defence, the 37-year-old fighter rocked Okhello with a powerful right to the head in the fifth round, then again in the eighth and ninth rounds.

But the 34-year-old challenger, bleeding from the mouth and with his swollen right eye almost shut, survived the barrage.

Japan-based Okhello finally went down in the 10th but Maskaev, urged on by a partisan 12,000-strong crowd with chants of “Russia, Russia”, failed to press the advantage.

“I really wanted to knock him out, unfortunately I just couldn’t get that one punch,” said Maskaev, who grew up in Uzbekistan before emigrating to the United States in the 1990s.

“It was my first professional fight in Russia, in front of my countrymen, so I was really motivated to win it. Despite not scoring a knockout, I’m still happy with my performance.”

On the undercard of the Maskaev-Okhello fight, Russia’s 2004 Olympic champion Alexander Povetkin scored a third-round knockout over American heavyweight contender Imamu Mayfield.

Pevetkin, who won super-heavyweight gold in Athens, improved his record to 10-0.

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