Boxing: March 27-28

[H2O Man]

FRIDAY - at Los Angeles (ESPN2) - 12 rounds, heavyweights: Samuel Peter (30-2, 23 KOs) vs. Eddie Chambers (33-1, 18 KOs).

SATURDAY - at Tijuana, Mexico (PPV) - 12 rounds, bantamweights: Fernando Montiel (38-2-1, 28 KOs) vs. Diego Oscar Silva (24-1-3, 12 KOs); 12 rounds, WBC super featherweight title: Humberto Soto (46-7-2, 29 KOs) vs. Antonio Davis (26-4, 13 KOs); 10 rounds, middleweights: Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (38-0-1, 29 KOs) vs. Luciano Leonel Cuello (23-0, 10 KOs); 10 rounds, welterweights: Javier Castro (19-1, 17 KOs) vs. Antonio Diaz (45-5-1, 29 KOs).

SATURDAY - at Miami, Oklahoma (Showtime) - 10 rounds, super middleweights: Andre Dirrell (17-0, 12 KOs) vs. Derrick Findley (13-2, 8 KOs); 10 rounds, light middleweights: Ronald Hearns (21-0, 17 KOs) vs. Harry Joe Yorgey (21-0-1, 9 KOs).

This weekend will provide boxing fans with some very interesting fights. I’m going to highlight the first one here, and hopefully will have more time to write about the other cards tomorrow.

It’s been a long time since there has been much interest in the heavyweight division. Too often, there have been boring fights or mis-matches. Last week, after Vitali Klitschko TKOed his former sparring partner – who spent most of his career at cruiserweight – Gomez told reporters that he was surprised he had lasted as many rounds as he had. That, unfortunately, sums up much of recent heavyweight history.

Tonight, there is the first of a spring-through-summer series of heavyweight bouts worth watching. ESPN is carrying the Samuel Peter vs Eddie Chambers fight (10 pm est). Both men are on the come-back trail after recent loses. Considering that both are talented, but have had sub-par performances, there is a small possibility that this will not live up to its potential. But I doubt that will happen. Let’s take a minute to look at each fighter.

Chambers, 26, lives in Philadelphia. He stands 6’ 1" – not tall for today’s heavyweights, but a half-inch taller than Peter. His 75" reach is 2 inches shorter than his opponent. His record is 33-1, with 18 KOs (53%) ; he’s fought a total of 199 rounds

He lost a 12 round decision to Alexander Povetkin in January, 2008, in a bout he appeared to be winning after 4 rounds. Then he seemed to stop trying, and ignored the advice of his manager/trainer father.

He has since hired a new manager/trainer, and won three in a row. In the first two, he scored TKOs. Most recently, he defeated a 268 lb opponent by an 8 round decision. One could surmise that this was a test for fighting Peter: Chambers hasn’t been an 8-round fighter for some time, and wanted to see how his endurance held up against that large an opponent.

Peter, 28, now lives in Los Vegas. He has fought 147 rounds, and has a 72% knockout ratio. In his last fight, he quit after nine embarassing rounds against Vitali Klitschko. DUers may recall that I had noted he was reported to be distracted by a conflict with his management days before the fight. He now attributes his loss to "snakes in (his) corner." He has since gone back to a previous manager/trainer.

Chambers weighed in at 223, which is heavy for him. In the few fights he has come in at over 220, he has never scored a knockout.

Peter weighed in at 265, which is 15 pounds heavier than he has ever looked good at. More, he claims to have lost 80 pounds in training. As he has a habit of saying things that are not reality-based, one might suspect he lost about 40 pounds. Still, that means he ballooned up since last October, and is still overweight. This is not a good sign.

Chambers’ style is somewhat similar to James Toney, who Peter decisioned twice (2006 and 2007). While Toney does a shoulder-roll, often anticipating a punch, and then returns hard shots, Chambers relies on faster reflexes, slips punches, steps to the side, and fires counter-punches. He has said he has no intention of getting into a slugging match with Peter. He will rely on speed of hand and foot, and look to sting Peter, and tire him out.

Peter should not try to "out-box" Chambers. He had adjusted in the second Toney fight, and won a convincing decision. But he is not a classic boxer; Chambers is. Sam Peter is a tank, and needs to press, then crush, Chambers, in order to win.

In a boxer vs puncher, speed vs power fight, one of the most important things is each fighter’s center of balance. Both are orthodox fighters: hence, left foot in front, right foot behind it. The area of the chest at shoulder level should be slightly forward, from bending your knees, and being in a slight crouch. So, the man who moves the other off-balance has the advantage. Chambers will look to feint, to side-step, and to duck under Peter’s punches. When he does this, he counters with fast, crisp combinations. Though not a hard puncher per say, speed is power. What he wants to avoid is pulling straight back, a habit he has from fighting inferior opposition. When he does so, his center of balance is temporarily lost.

Peter wants to jab to Chambers’ chest. Going for the head is difficult early on, against a fast opponent. The chest only moves so far. With Sam’s power, a punch that hits the opponent’s chest or shoulder can knock him off balance – or even down, as Toney found out. More, although a punch to the head or gut hurts more, repeated punches to the chest do strange things. They make your arms harder to coordinate as rounds go by. You start moving slower.

Chambers needs to keep the fight in the center of the ring. If that ring were a chess board, he wants it as close to the four center squares as possible; his best shots catch Peter there, or charging wildly in from there. Peter wants to push Chambers into the ropes, and attempt to knock him through the ropes.

Who will win? Either man can get the victory, and both have the flaws that could lose them the fight. One of my friends says that Sam Peter is too heavy, and will be frustrated and out-boxed tonight. Another friend thinks Peter will flatten Eddie around the 5th round. I think they both raise good points, and I’ll be able to say for sure which one was correct after the fight.

Enjoy this one. It should be good

[Wetzelbill]

1. Do you think it was the weight?

Peter might not have much of a future now. Pretty undisciplined to get so far out of shape and then come in still overweight. Not to mention his last showing was, as you said "embarrassing", you have to wonder if a guy can't get up for a fight when his career is probably on the line then what can he get up for? Likely he lost this fight before he even stepped in the ring.

On another note, I like Fernando Montiel, tough fighter. I hope he continues to do well. I watched him fight Jhonny Gonzales on tv a few years ago. I actually saw Jhonny fight in person at Desert Diamond Casino here in Tucson over 3 years ago.

[H2O Man]

2. I think the main problem

is that Peter has only had one opportunity to get a trainer who could actually bring him securely to the next level, and Peter didn't take it. That was, of course, the time a couple years ago, when Teddy Atlas was considering training Sam. As he noted from ringside, when Teddy and Sam discussed the possiblity of Teddy coming on as trainer, Sam insisted that Teddy relocate. Teddy wasn't going to move to the west coast, and Sam wasn't willing to move east. In my opinion, there were people near Sam who influenced his decision, and they were concerned Teddy was going to "steal" their chance to control the next great heavyweight champion.

What Teddy (and a number of other good trainers, as well) could have added to Sam's progress are the things I mentioned in the OP .... the ability to have his center of balance work for him; to dip at the knees, and deliver punches from there; to properly cut the ring off from someone who is faster on their feet; and to throw proper combinations.

What they could remove, in the way of errors, the stiff legs; the leaning & hanging to the right when he throws to the body (oh, I hate that); a pawing jab; and the failure to throw more than a couple of left hooks to the head in the ten rounds with Chambers.

As I had noted, the WORST thing Sam could do would be to try to out-box Chambers. But that is exactly what he did. How many rounds did Sam try to "steal" by flurrying in the last ten seconds? Sugar Ray Leonard, Sam is not. That is a boxer's tactic, not a slugger's.

Had Sam been with a better trainer -- better for his specific needs -- he should have been shown the film of Sonny Liston vs Eddie Machen. Over and over. Because it was the same basic dynamics in both cases. One shudders to think if Sonny had tried to out-box Eddie Machen, and to take rounds with a single flurry in the final ten seconds.

The part about getting in shape is, of course, essential. However, Sam made this into a fight where he was going to get more tired than Chambers. If he fought different, that would not have happened. It doesn't mean it would have been an easy fight -- Chambers is a smart, talented fighter. But Sam fought the wrong fight, and now he owns the loss.

Still, he is only 28. If he gets a better trainer, he'll do well. The Klitschko brothers are going to be in his way, but they are both likely to retire before Sam is 31.

Without a better trainer, he will be remembered for his loses, and viewed as Buster Mathis, Sr.'s brain in Sonny Liston's body.

[H2O Man]

3. Showtime fights.

Ronald Hearns was KOed in a tough fight, in which both men were decked. Yorgey was decked once; he put Hearns down three times, the last time for the count.

Dirrell looked strong in the first round, but failed to impress after that. He was matched with a smaller opponent; Findley isn't a natural super middleweight, and was 7 inches shorter. He was totally outclassed, and threw very few punches back at Dirrell. His corner eventually called an end to the fight after it became a boring, one-sided affair.