What a difference a gigantic victory can make. Eddie Chambers, the 27-year-old Philadelphia heavyweight contender, talks these days with a new swagger, like a fighter with a bright eye on the future instead of regrets about one bad night last year.
On July 4, in Hamburg, Germany, Chambers established himself as one of the world's elite heavyweight boxers. He dominated Alexander Dimitrenko, a previously undefeated, 6-foot-7, 254-pound Ukrainian. The win earned Chambers (35-1) a shot at Wladimir Klitschko, the world heavyweight champion, and conceivably a multimillion-dollar payday. That may happen in early 2010.
Against Dimitrenko, Chambers showed superior skills from Round 1 and never let up. He battered Dimitrenko with stiff jabs, hard rights, and fast combinations, blasting the big man with body shots that had him cringing. In Round 10, he decked Dimitrenko with a left hook to the jaw that sent his mouthpiece flying.
"I was jabbing my way in," the normally humble Chambers said, uncharacteristically brash in describing his victory. "I went to the teeth of the alligator, but I had knives on me, and I was stabbing him in his mouth while I was going inside. Then I got to his heart and dug it out."
If Chambers is gloating, it's understandable. His only previous trip to Germany didn't go as well. In January 2008, he went to Berlin with a similar docket. A win over undefeated Russian Alexander Povetkin would have put Chambers in line for a shot at Klitschko.
Chambers was cruising to victory in the first half of the fight, then inexplicably fizzled and allowed Povetkin to surge back and win. Chambers thinks his head failed more than his body; nervous tension and the magnitude of the moment, in his first time traveling overseas, overwhelmed him.
"I got a little weak in there - mentally weak. And I gave that fight away," he said.
It was just one loss, but overnight Chambers went from contender to question mark. The Povetkin fight had been on HBO. His next three weren't televised.
"That one fight turned me from a good six figures [his purse for the Povetkin fight] back to four almost," he said. "I mean, I lost one fight - and I was winning the fight until I blew it. One fight can do that?"
"After a loss like that, you have a choice: Stay there or you move forward," said Rob Murray Sr., Chambers' manager. After the loss, Murray stepped in to become trainer as well. Chambers had been trained for years by his father, Eddie Chambers Sr., who put his son in the ring as a teenager to build his confidence in a tough section of Pittsburgh where Eddie Jr. was harassed by bullies. Murray - who had grown up in Philadelphia gyms, learning from legendary trainers like Yank Durham, and had worked the corner of Bernard Hopkins - became a close family friend. He brought Chambers to Philadelphia and oversaw his growth, including 17 fights at the Blue Horizon from 2002 to 2006.
Under Murray's training, Chambers won three low-profile fights in 2008, then in March beat former champion Samuel Peter to earn a ticket back to Germany - a second chance. Murray took Chambers to train in the Poconos. They worked on technique, analyzed films of greats like Joe Louis beating bigger opponents. They brought in a conditioning coach and put Chambers on a diet, honing him from a flabby 223 pounds to a muscular 208.
"If you'd have cut my head off, you wouldn't even have recognized who it was," Chambers said.
His head changed, too.
"We got away from the negative energy," Chambers said.
In Hamburg, at the hotel before this month's fight, Rob Murray Jr., who does promotions for Team Chambers, showed the heavyweight a passage in an old book, The Greatest Salesman in the World, by Og Mandino. It was about taking advantage of what's in front of you.
"It just made me just relax," Chambers said. "I knew I was in shape. I just had to go out and perform, not worry about failure. Act now."
He did.
On Friday, the elder Murray hosted a celebratory cookout for Chambers. They had a cake made that said "Team Chambers Independence Day."
"Hey, champ!" someone yelled when Chambers arrived. Champ? Not yet.
Klitschko is bigger (6-6) and more experienced (50-3, 47 knockouts) than Chambers. But in 2006, the 6-1 Chambers sparred with Klitschko and was able to muscle him around. Who knows what's possible?
"The change in Eddie mentally and physically was apparent," Dan Goossen, Chambers' promoter, said after the fight. He called the win over Dimitrenko a "performance we believed he always had in him."
Now, Goossen said, "I don't care who the champion is, how big they are. Eddie Chambers showed that he can be a giant-killer."
See you at the Fights.
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Unless IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (57-3, 50 KO’s) wants to give him a step aside payment, 40-year-old Tony Thompson (36-2, 24 KO’s) will be the next fight for Wladimir. Thompson, #2 IBF, is Wladimir’s mandatory challenger and he’s due to get his title shot. If Wladimir chooses to ignore him, then the IBF will strip Wladimir of his IBF title and that’s something Wladimir doesn’t want to happen.
