By Erik Schmidt: Unbeaten heavyweight contender Alexander Dimitrenko will have to earn a shot at the winner of WBO champion Wladimir Klitschko vs. David Haye by facing heavyweight contender Eddie Chambers in a WBO title eliminator bout on July 4th at the Color Line Arena, Altona, in Hamburg, Germany. Dimitrenko, 26, is currently ranked at #1 in the WBO. Dimitrenko recently defeated Luan Krasniqi in a 3rd round stoppage in November.
For his part, Chambers, 27, defeated former WBC heavyweight champion Samuel Peter by a 10-round majority decision in March. Chambers, 6’1″, will be giving up six inches in height to the 6’7″ Dimitrenko.
However, Chambers has faced the much better competition up to this point with bouts against Dominick Guinn, Calvin Brock, and Alexander Povetkin. Chambers was beaten by Povetkin in a 12-round unanimous decision loss in an IBF Heavyweight Title Eliminator match in January. This will be Chambers second shot at trying to become the mandatory challenger for one of Klitschko’s titles.
Also on the July 4th card will be cruiserweight contender Alexander Alexeev, who is still working his way back up the cruiserweight latter after suffering a shocking 9th round stoppage loss to Victor Ramirez last year in January for the interim WBO cruiserweight title.
Alexeev, 28, led the whole way until running out of gas in the 8th and 9th rounds, and getting hurt by a series of hooks which caused Alexeev’s corner to pull the plug on the fight. Ramirez, 25, a pressure fighter from Argentina, wasn’t landing with much in the fight but his pressure seemed to take the energy out of Alexeev down the stretch.
In his first bout after the defeat to Ramirez, Alexeev defeated Max Alexander by a 10-round decision on May 2nd. In that fight, Alexeev seemed to be having problems with his stamina as well, sweating badly and looking tired early in the fight. However, Alexander did little in the fight other than to jab at Alexeev, which made it easier on the Russian fighter.
WBA female/WIBF Women’s International Boxing Federation flyweight champion Susi Kentikian (24-0, 16 KOs) will be defending her title against a still unnamed opponent in a 10-round bout. Kentikian, 21, recently defeated American challenger Elena Reid in a lopsided 10-round unanimous decision in March.
The fight wasn’t even remotely close as Kentikian dominated Reid throughout the 10-round bout, punishing her with blistering fast combos and rarely getting hit in return by Reid. The difference in the hand speed between the faster Kentikian and Reid was startling as was the talent gap.
Reid looked to be a couple levels below Kentikian in talent and could do little with her other than to absorb punishment for 10 long rounds. The bout arguably could have been stopped after the 3rd round because it was clear by then that Reid didn’t have the offense, defense of the speed to compete with the much more talented Kentikian in the fight.
However, the fight was allowed to continue on for another seven rounds and it was painful to see badly Reid was beaten in the fight. By the end of the bout, Reid’s face was reddened and swollen from the many shots she had been hit with in the bout.
Also on the card, WIBF/GBU Jr. bantamweight title holder Alesia Graf (23-1, 9 KOs) will be facing an unnamed opponent. Graf is coming off a nice 10-round decision win over Magdalena Dahlen in March.
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