By Ian Aldous: Eddie Chambers (36-3) will embark on the next chapter of his career when he drops to cruiserweight after a long and successful time as a heavyweight that culminated in a world title challenge against Wladimir Klitschko (lost by KO12) in 2010. On August 3rd at the Mohegan Sun, Uncasville, CT, Eddie will take on the relatively unknown South African, Thabiso Mchunu (13-1) live on NBC Sports Network. Last week Eddie took some time to speak with me over the phone ahead of another session in the gym.
As previously mentioned, his campaign at heavyweight was met with defeats by only the best in the division: Wladimir Klitschko, Alexander Povetkin and most recently a debatable decision defeat to Tomasz Adamek that we’ll get to later! Having regularly fought opponents bigger and heavier than him, a drop down to 200lbs was a logical move for Chambers. “Well, I mean it was a pretty easy decision. I’ve always wanted to compete with guys my size but I also wanted to win a world title (at heavyweight). Don’t get me wrong, I think I can win a title at heavyweight but it’s more likely I can dominate at cruiserweight. It was a pretty easy decision and an easy transition as far as the weight.”
Going into fight night, it will have been over thirteen months since Eddie stepped into the ring against Adamek. You’d be forgiven for thinking ring-rust might be something that’ll bother him, but it’s nothing new to him during his career. “It’s always something you think about, but if you remember correctly before I fought Tomasz, I had a year and, I think, four months lay off from before that, so a lot of people were asking me the same question. I think if you do the proper work in the gym and take care of business there, by the time it’s time to get in that ring, it’s no problem. Of course I wont be as sharp as I’d like to be, there’s gonna be some things that may get into my head a little bit like the pressure I put on myself and that’s all good because I wanna make sure that I’m the best I possibly can be and overachieve as a fighter. That’s just natural like nerves and all the stuff that goes along with that.”
It’s been well documented that for some strange reason, the cruiserweight division isn’t very popular in the U.S. I’m of the opinion that it doesn’t matter what weight the fights are that I’m watching, as long as they’re interesting and entertaining. The cruiserweight division unfortunately has an unfashionable tag in the U.S. “I think it’s ridiculous. No disrespect to the heavyweight division but I believe the cruiserweight division are the throwback heavyweights. Those were the size of the guys when the heavyweight division was the heavyweight division. Now I think it’s something a little different, I think it’s the super-heavyweight division. There’s been fights of the year with cruiserweight fights – numerous times. In recent years, you had O’Neill Bell/Mormeck, Steve Cunningham/Tomasz Adamek, James Toney/Vassiliy Jirov. These were all cruiserweight bouts that I just mentioned, the more I think about it, you got the Marco Huck/Ola Afolabi fights recently have been highly exciting fights and what with the recent surprise of Guillermo Jones fighting Lebedev. All these fights I’ve mentioned were great fights, all action and all in the cruiserweight division. You get big guys that are in shape and throwing a lot of punches and a lot more punches than you would see in the heavyweight division.” Eddie also went on to give his thoughts on why the cruiserweight division is more competitive. “There’s not gonna be a whole lot of mismatches as far as size goes (at cruiserweight). If you get a one-sided fight it’s because he’s a better fighter, not because he’s a bigger fighter.”
Europe and especially Germany are quite the opposite and welcome the very best cruiserweights with open arms, seven of the top ten cruiserweights ranked by boxrec fight on a regular basis in Europe. Fellow American Steve Cunningham took the decision to travel to Europe where he won the IBF belt and took part in numerous great fights over the course of six years. Having already fought in Germany three times, Chambers could envisage taking a similar path to further his career. “Honestly, I would love that opportunity. I love being in Germany and it’s a great country to visit and I’m pretty sure to live in! Many fighters from the States have moved over there. It’s never a big problem besides the fact that I don’t like to fly (laughs)! Obviously I’m from the States, so I definitely wanna make sure I bring these titles back and have these guys come over to the States. I don’t want to say if I go over there I’m not gonna get a fair shake, that’s not fair to say, however I’ve fought there several times and the scoring was always pretty dodgy. I’ve seen a lot of eastern European guys come on over to the states and get favorable scoring in the States and they’re not even from here. Why not come over here? There’s no real risk for the eastern Europeans when they come here.”
I’ll admit that I know very little about his opponent, Thabiso Mchunu. So, I did the obvious thing and asked Eddie for his thoughts about the man who’ll be facing him on August 3rd. “There’s not much to look at or many things to see with him. However, that actually makes him more dangerous. He’s young, he’s hungry and from what I hear he works hard. He’s trying to do something that most people think he can’t do. All he’s gonna do is make me raise my game. He seems to be pretty athletic. He might have a little bit of something to bring to the table. At the end of the day, I’ve fought bigger, better, stronger, tougher guys than him.” Eddie goes into the fight exuding confidence. “I think my resume and my skills speak for itself and I think that I’m gonna come back home with another victory.”
His last bout at heavyweight was memorable for the wrong reasons. He fought for almost every round of it with one arm after tearing a tendon in his left arm. Despite the injury, the fact that he was still competitive in the fight paid testament to his skill set. Adamek got the decision in a very close and tough to score fight. “I felt like I won it. I mean, at the time there was a lot of emotion and things you gotta deal with as a fighter that kinda clouded my judgment at the time. I didn’t wanna be a sore loser but I honestly thought I won the fight. I thought I did what I needed to do, one arm and all to control that fight. Then you hear the scoring, which is ridiculous. That’s what I was talking about with the guys from the other countries getting favorable scoring in our home, it’s crazy. It should have been the other way around, but hey, it is what it is and if it was the other way around, people could have understood that more than the decision he got. It’s shocking.”
A chance to right what he believes were the wrongs of the Adamek fight is something that Chambers would like to see happen in the future. “If things go well in this fight, which I’m very certain they will, that’s a fight and an opportunity that I would like to revisit maybe sometime in the future. If they would be willing, which it’s hard to believe someone would want to get in with a guy that was able to literally beat him with one hand and try him again with two. No disrespect to him but I believe I was the better man on that night.”
The current crop of cruiserweight champions is headed by the Ring Magazine champion, Yoan Pablo Hernandez, who in his most recent fight was lucky to get a decision over Troy Ross. The other beltholders are Marco Huck, Krzysztof Wlodarczyk and Guillermo Jones. Chambers is happy to go after any of these fighters on his road to glory. “They’re all basic fighters but they’re tough professional champions regardless of the situation in how they fight and how they look when they fight. They’re still formidable obviously because they’ve been able to hold a belt although they’ve been protecting it and fighting the same guys and being very careful. A lot of it’s political and I think that needs to stop. With a guy like myself, I wanna be a throwback fighter. I wanna fight who’s out there, I wanna fight the champions. If I’m fortunate enough in my career from now on to be a champion – I’m going right after the rest of them. There’s no point sitting around and defending your title against no.1 contender after no.1 contender, don’t get me wrong they deserve their shot like everyone else but I want the no.1 contenders to be the no.1 contender from one belt – The Ring Magazine (belt).”
August 3rd “Three To See” card at Mohegan Sun, Uncasville, CT. In the main event Curtis Stevens and Saul Roman will clash for 10-rounds in a middleweight war. Also co-featured will be a 10-round cruiserweight battle between Eddie Chambers and Thabiso Mchunu. Heavyweight, Tomasz “Goral” Adamek will take on Tony Grano, Hartford, CT, 20-3-1, 16 KO’s, for 10-rounds.
NBC Sports Network Fight Night will telecast the August 3rd show beginning 10:30PM EDT.
Tickets are priced at $120 and $35 plus facility fees and can be purchased by calling Mohegan Sun Box office 860-862-8499 or toll free at 888-226-7711 ext 8499. For ADA accessible sales, call Mohegan Sun Box Office at 860-862-8499.
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