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Eddie Chambers Looks To Make Cruiserweight Mark Aug. 3
Eddie Chambers has thought long and hard about dropping down to cruiserweight from heavyweight, but he had an extra chunk of time while rehabbing from an arm injury suffered in his last bout, a UD12 loss to Tomasz Adamek on June 16, 2012.
During the layoff, he decided to drop down, where there wouldn’t be a size advantage for his foe, where he would no longer be the smaller guy.
“I just really want to be in this weight class because I see that possibilities are a little more open at cruiserweight and I can also reign there because there is no size difference,” he said.
We shall see if the move pays off on Aug. 3, when he takes on the South African resident Thabiso Mchinu, at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut. The fighter took part in a media call Wednesday, and said he could, if he beats Mchunu, get a cruiser title crack by the end of the year. But, he also said that he wouldn’t shut the door on a trip back to heavyweight, to fight a similarly-sized boxer.
“I’m not looking past this guy,” said the 36-3 Pennsylvanian, who will meet the southpaw foe in a fight to run on NBC Sports Network. “But if I can get a sweet deal against a smaller heavyweight, at 225 pounds or so, I would be willing to step in with the right guy.”
(Chambers is happy that he won’t be facing a severe height disadvantage like he did in above photo against 6-7 Alexander Dimitrenko in 2009.)
His promoter, Kathy Duva, said she tried hard to make a Chambers-David Haye fight, but got no love from the Haye team. She also said that an Eddie Chamber-Dereck Chisora fight sounds intriguing: “I thought, ‘Let’s bring Eddie to crusier, see if he can dominate, we believe he will and then he can skip back and forth if he wants.”’
In the cruiser realm, Duva said, the IBF goes by the rules, so she’d be inclined to target their champion for Chambers. She said she’s gung ho on drumming up interest in the cruiser class, and the same goes for the heavyweight class, on HBO.
The last Chambers fight, against Adamek, provided proof that the 6-1 Chambers has skills, and will; his left bicep tore in round one, and he was right there with the Pole the whole rest of the way. That skill and will, though, makes it hard to get gigs. Duva and matchmker Jolene Mizzone joked on the call that German promoters, who have corraled much of the cruiser talent, use every excuse in the book when Duva pokes around for opportunities for Chambers, who has been in with Alexander Povetkin, Samuel Peter and Wladimir Klitschko.
Trainer James Bashir weighed in, and said that he’d love to see a super heavyweight division created, so the big boys could tangle with each other. He’d still like to see Chambers fight Seth Mitchell, for example. Tyson Fury, not so much, he said.
Mchunu (13-1) and his promoter, Damien Michael, got credit from Duva and Mizzone, for being so quick to take a tough fight. Mizzone said she’d been in contact with them for about a year before the Chambers slot opened up. They were informed and took it right away.
Duva finished by touting the Aug. 3 card. No empty promise, I’d say; her Main Events/NBC cards have featured some solid contests, and I expect this one to be no different.
The WBC World Super Featherweight title bout between Francisco Vargas and Takashi Miura came on one of the biggest boxing stages of 2015, as the bout served as the HBO pay-per-view’s co-main event on November 21st, in support of Miguel Cotto vs Saul Alvarez.
Miura entered the fight with a (29-2-2) record and he was making the fifth defense of his world title, while Vargas entered the fight with an undefeated mark of (22-0-1) in what was his first world title fight. Both men had a reputation for all-out fighting, with Miura especially earning high praise for his title defense in Mexico where he defeated Sergio Thompson in a fiercely contested battle.
The fight started out hotly contested, and the intensity never let up. Vargas seemed to win the first two rounds, but by the fourth round, Miura seemed to pull ahead, scoring a knock-down and fighting with a lot of confidence. After brawling the first four rounds, Miura appeared to settle into a more technical approach. Rounds 5 and 6 saw the pendulum swing back towards Vargas, as he withstood Miura’s rush to open the fifth round and the sixth round saw both men exchanging hard punches.
The big swinging continued, and though Vargas likely edged Miura in rounds 5 and 6, Vargas’ face was cut in at least two spots and Miura started to assert himself again in rounds 7 and 8. Miura was beginning to grow in confidence while it appeared that Vargas was beginning to slow down, and Miura appeared to hurt Vargas at the end of the 8th round.
Vargas turned the tide again at the start of the ninth round, scoring a knock down with an uppercut and a straight right hand that took Miura’s legs and sent him to the canvas. Purely on instinct, Miura got back up and continued to fight, but Vargas was landing frequently and with force. Referee Tony Weeks stepped in to stop the fight at the halfway point of round 9 as Miura was sustaining a barrage of punches.
Miura still had a minute and a half to survive if he was going to get out of the round, and it was clear that he was not going to stop fighting.
A back and forth battle of wills between two world championship level fighters, Takashi Miura versus “El Bandido” Vargas wins the 2015 Fight of the Year.
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This coming Saturday, January 9th, the stage is set at the Baden Arena in Offenburg, Germany for a re-match between Vincent Feigenbutz and Giovanni De Carolis. The highly anticipated re-match is set to air on SAT.1 in Germany, and Feigenbutz will once again be defending his GBU and interim WBA World titles at Super Middleweight.
The first meeting between the two was less than three months ago, on October 17th and that meeting saw Feigenbutz controversially edge De Carolis on the judge’s cards by scores of (115-113, 114-113 and 115-113). De Carolis scored a flash knock down in the opening round, and he appeared to outbox Feigenbutz in the early going, but the 20 year old German champion came on in the later rounds.
The first bout is described as one of the most crowd-pleasing bouts of the year in Germany, and De Carolis and many observers felt that the Italian had done enough to win.
De Carolis told German language website RAN.DE that he was more prepared for the re-match, and that due to the arrogance Feigenbutz displayed in the aftermath of the first fight, he was confident that he had won over some of the audience. Though De Carolis fell short of predicting victory, he promised a re-vamped strategy tailored to what he has learned about Feigenbutz, whom he termed immature and inexperienced.
The stage is set for Feigenbutz vs De Carolis 2, this Saturday January 9th in Offenburg, Germany. If you can get to the live event do it, if not you have SAT.1 in Germany airing the fights, and The Boxing Channel right back here for full results.
On May 9th of 2015, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez delivered a resonant knock-out of James Kirkland on HBO that wins the 2015 KO of the Year.
The knock-out itself came in the third round, after slightly more than two minutes of action. The end came when Alvarez delivered a single, big right hand that caught Kirkland on the jaw and left him flat on his back after spinning to the canvas.Alvarez was clearly the big star heading into the fight. The fight was telecast by HBO for free just one week after the controversial and disappointing Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao fight, and Alvarez was under pressure to deliver the type of finish that people were going to talk about. Kirkland was happy to oblige Alvarez, taking it right to Alvarez from the start. Kirkland’s aggression saw him appear to land blows that troubled the young Mexican in the early going. Alvarez played good defense, and he floored Kirkland in the first round, displaying his power and his technique in knocking down an aggressive opponent.
However, Kirkland kept coming at Alvarez and the fight entered the third round with both men working hard and the feeling that the fight would not go the distance. Kirkland continued to move forward, keeping “Canelo” against the ropes and scoring points with a barrage of punches while looking for an opening.
At around the two minute mark, Alvarez landed an uppercut that sent Kirkland to the canvas again. Kirkland got up, but it was clear that he did not have his legs under him. Kirkland was going to try to survive the round, but Alvarez had an opportunity to close out the fight. The question was would he take it?
Alvarez closed in on Kirkland, putting his opponent’s back to the ropes. Kirkland was hurt, but he was still dangerous, pawing with punches and loading up for one big shot.
But it was the big shot “Canelo” threw that ended the night. Kirkland never saw it coming, as he was loading up with a huge right hand of his own. The right Alvarez threw cracked Kirkland in the jaw, and his eyes went blank. His big right hand whizzed harmlessly over the head of a ducking Alvarez, providing the momentum for the spin that left Kirkland prone on the canvas.
Saul “Canelo” Alvarez went on to defeat Miguel Cotto in his second fight of 2015 and he is clearly one of boxing’s biggest stars heading into 2016. On May 9th Alvarez added another reel to his highlight film when he knocked out James Kirkland with the 2015 “Knock Out of the Year”.
Photo by naoki fukuda
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