This 4th of July contest isn't the first title eliminator for Chambers on German soil. His bout versus Povetkin in January of 2008 was for the IBF version. In a bout that he controlled early, he inexplicably stopped fighting and was overtaken down the stretch by Povetkin.
“In the fight with Povetkin, Povetkin's eye was swollen, everything like this and Buddy McGirt is my dear friend and Buddy was trying to do the best he could. Buddy was brought in late in that. Nobody mentioned the eye. Certain buttons have to be pushed in an athlete," said Murray.
Chambers promises to not repeat the same mistake. He knows that Dimitrenko enjoys the home canvas advantage this weekend.
"It taught me one thing," Chambers says of lone professional defeat, "no matter how much you have something under control, especially in boxing, it's not to say you can't lose control. And for me, I've seen it. So when you get control, assume control, do not give up anything. Just because it seems like it's getting easy don't back down, don't pull off the gas. First of all, I'm NOT fighting at home, I'm not necessarily going to get a fair decision. I'm not going to say it's going to be a bad decision or anything like that, but you never know with the decisions.
“But first of all, I gotta win and win impressively anyway, just to get a draw. So that fight in itself really taught me what I really have to do and the pressure I gotta put on these guys."
Chambers, despite not being the biggest heavyweight out there, has a solid set of tools: fast hands, elusiveness and the ability to relax. But he can frustrate you at times with the way he fights. In his victory over Peter, he showed an alarming lack of urgency that made what could've been a decisive outcome into a fight he had to eke out. Chambers says that part of the reason he couldn't let his hands go as often as he wanted is because he jammed his right wrist.
But he conceded," I wasn't 100-percent happy, honestly, I felt I could've done more. I rocked him a few times, I really did some serious damage to him mentally, physically throughout the whole fight and I think I had complete control but in doing so I don't think I finished the fight the way I needed to. Maybe I could've finished it before it was supposed to be done - meaning stopping him early. I had all those opportunities, all these things could've been done but I didn't follow up and in that part I was a little disappointed. But with the victory, I was satisfied."
Perhaps one thing that also held him back was the fact that Chambers weighed in closer to 220-pounds than he did to 210.
"I'm not going to say all of that was it, the fact is, me being big or small, I can fight with anybody," he says. "But I think if I would've been smaller, lighter, I would've been able to get off more combinations, sharper shots."
Expect a much slimmer, trimmer Chambers this time around.
“I see something now at 209-pounds," says Murray, who gets excited at the mere thought of it. "I remember Holyfield at his best, 6'1, 212. When Ali was really jumping around, he was 210, 211. He slowed down as he got older and heavier." To Murray, a smaller Chambers is a better Chambers. “I've seen him heavy and I've seen him light. I like what I see lighter. In other words, if you go back to the great heavyweight fighters, champions: Jack Johnson, 6'1, 190-something pounds, maybe at 200. Joe Louis, 190-something pounds. Rocky Marciano, 195-pounds, Most of the great fighters were smaller guys. It goes back to football; your last line of defense is what? Defensive backs, they're stopping jokers and they weigh 190-195 pounds, they're not big guys."
Even in an era where world-class heavyweights look more like defensive ends than free safeties, Murray believes that less is more.
“What I'm saying is, speed is the thing that will get you through everything. Speed and talent and being able to break the defense and do all the things you can possibly do. The lighter Eddie is, the sharper he is."
Win this fight, and he gets a shot at Wladimir Klitschko.
“I gotta tell ya', we all know that Eddie's shown the ability to go out there and be a mesmerizing heavyweight. One that's fast, accurate, can take a shot, can give better than the other guy," said his promoter, Dan Goossen. "But what we've seen with that, is a lack of consistency throughout the fight. For some reason I believe that Rob Murray Sr. has got in his head and I don't know if you've seen this in some of the other interviews he's done, but he's never been so verbally aggressive in what he's going to do in a fight since we've been involved with him and I actually believe what he's saying now. That he believes and if he does, then I think we're in for a great performance and one that might shock a lot of people because I think Eddie Chambers has finally realized how good he is.
“But what he's gotta do is achieve that success."
BERRY BERRY GOOD
Those of you that know me at all know that I'm pretty set in my ways. I take pride in being pretty old-fashioned. Well, some of you may want to sit down - I turned in my beloved old Nextel flip-phone for a Blackberry. Yup, I went from 1999 to about 2005.
First Kim Jong-Ill gets nuclear weapons, now I get a Blackberry. Don't let us Koreans have too many gadgets, we can get crazy. I'm actually taking pictures and videos with my new thing-a-ma-jig and sending them to people. I even put up my own screen saver. I still can't believe it. And get this, you can even browse the internet on this thing. Seriously, when did they come up with that?!? It's amazing. What will they think of next?
I mean, now I'm even thinking of replacing my abacus for a calculator (I’m thinking of going with a Texas-Instruments model) and perhaps even replacing my Vic20 computer. Is this Apple company reputable? You know, progress ain't such a bad thing.
Now, here's the kicker, I even got my own Twitter account (stevemaxboxing) and you won’t believe this, I actually tweeted (that's what the kids call it, right?) from my new thing-a-ma-berry. On this new fangled contraption I plan on giving out whatever boxing scoops and flurries that came up throughout the day.
As for my Walkman, sorry folks, that stays. I have waaaaay too many cassette tapes of Stevie B, Lisa Lisa, Public Enemy, RUN-DMC and Billy Ocean that I still listen to while working out.
FRIDAY FLURRIES
OK, so who got the better end of the Trevor Ariza-Ron Artest swap? I think Artest will give the Lakers a lot of toughness and grit, but he has a tendency to kill ball movement at times.....So that means the Lakers will re-sign Lamar Odom and Shan-Wow Brown, right?.....Seriously, with all the questions about who really fathered Michael Jackson's kids, doesn't it give the song 'Billie Jean' a whole new meaning?...Is there a better one-man wrecking crew than the Padres’ Adrian Gonzalez?....The newest fighter training at the Wild Card Boxing Club is heavyweight Brian 'Fresh' Minto.....Get this folks, I'm also using a Jawbone earpiece....I still can't believe I'm on Twitter. The world may come to an end. Have a great 4th, everyone....
See you at the Fights.
Thanks for your time.
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