Chambers Upsets Dimitrenko, Alekseev, Kentikian and Graf Also Victorious

By Erik Schmidt: In a huge upset, American heavyweight contender Eddie Chambers (35-1, 18 KOs) outpointed 6′7″ Ukrainian Alexander Dimitrenko (29-1, 19 KOs), beating him by a 12-round majority decision tonight to become the World Boxing Organization mandatory challenger for WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko at the Color Line Arena, Altona, in Hamburg, Germany.

The final judges’ scores were 117-109, 116-111 and 113-113. Giving up 45 pounds in weight, six inches in height and eight inches in reach to the mammoth Dimitrenko, Chambers used his faster hands to batter the slower Dimitrenko in get away before Dimitrenko could land his big slow punches. It was thought that Dimitrenko might try and utilize his jab to control the fight.

However, instead Chambers was able to lure the younger, less mature Dimitrenko into trading with him at close range and was able to nullify Dimitrenko’s reach in that manner. Instead of fighting at a distance, Dimitrenko got heated and tried to fight Chambers’ game and ended up suffering because of it.

There were concerns about Dimitrenko going into the bout that he would let himself get lured into a war at close range, because this had happened many times in the past when Dimitrenko was facing lesser fighters. However, it was thought that Dimitrenko’s trainer had stressed the importance of keeping the fight on the outside where Chambers would be nearly helpless.

However, it seems that Dimitrenko completely ignored his trainer’s advice and went to war with the shorter Chambers at close range and wasn’t able to compete with the American’s faster and crisper combinations. Chambers, 27, knocked Dimitrenko down with a left hand in the 10th round. By then, the fight was totally one-sided and Dimitrenko was trailing badly needing a knockout to win. Instead, he found himself on the canvas.

Dimitrenko continued to take a lot of punishment in the remainder of the round, as well as in the 11th and 12th. Dimitrenko was hurt in the 12th round by a big right hand from Chambers. By then it was academic and it didn’t matter what Chambers was doing. He was merely adding icing to the cake of his victory.

The win makes Chambers the mandatory challenger for Wladimir Klitschko, but based on how Chambers looked tonight against Dimitrenko, I can’t see Chambers lasting more than six or seven rounds against the much faster and powerful Wladimir.

Unlike Dimitrenko, Klitschko fights with much more discipline and hits a lot harder. He won’t allow Chambers to fight him at close range without tying him up. On the outside, Wladimir will slowly break Chambers down with jabs and right hands and take him out. However, at least Chambers will be getting a good payday out of it even in losing.

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In other action on the card, the stamina plagued cruiserweight contender Alexander Alekseev (18-1, 16 KO’s) defeated journeyman Kendrick Releford (20-13-2, 10 KO’s) by a third round TKO. Alekseev, who has had problems fading in his last two fights against Max Alexander and Victor Ramirez, was matched extra soft in this fight and was able to take Releford out with combinations to the head and body before Alekseev’s stamina failed on him once again.

After the 3rd round, Releford had enough and decided not to come out for the 4th round. The victory failed to answer any questions about Alekseev’s problems with his poor stamina because he was matched so softly. Before getting stopped by Ramirez in the 9th round in January, Alekseev had stopped most of his B and C class opponents in the two to four rounds.

At that time, Alekseev looked unbeatable and quickly was pushed up in the cruiserweight rankings without being tested against a good cruiserweight. However, when Alekseev finely fought a halfway decent – not great – cruiserweight in Ramirez, Alekseev ran out of gas after the 5th round and took punishment until having the fight stopped by his trainer in the 9th.
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Unbeaten WBA/WIBF flyweight champion Susi Kentikian (25-0, 16 KOs) easily defeated yet another over-matched opponent in Carolina Gaite (15-2, 11 KOs), beating her by a one-sided 10-roud unanimous decision. The final judges’ scores were heavily slanted in Kentikian’s favor, winning by the scores of 100-90, 100-90 and 100-90. Kentikian used her speed and combinations to dominate the slower less offensively skilled Gaite through ten rounds.

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In a questionable decision, WIBF/GBU female super flyweight champion Alesia Graf (24-1, 9 KOs) defeated Terri Lynn Cruz (17-6-2, 8 KOs) by a 10-round split decision. Cruz appeared to win the fight by at least two to three rounds over Graf. In the 6th round, Graf was knocked down and struggled in the last four rounds taking big shots from Cruz.

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