Brewster: Chambers destroys Liakhovich

By Boxing News - 01/07/2012 - Comments

Image: Brewster: Chambers destroys LiakhovichBy Allen Fox: Former WBO heavyweight champion Lamon Brewster sees heavyweight contender Eddie Chambers (36-2, 18 KO’s) having little problems beating former World Boxing Organization heavyweight champ Siarhei Liakhovich (25-4, 16 KO’s( in their fight this month on January 21st at the Asylum Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Brewster has previously fought a younger version of Liakhovich six years ago in April 2006 and was beaten by a hard fought 12 round unanimous decision. That was perhaps the best fight of Liakhovich’s career and neither Brewster nor Liakhovich has been the same since that grueling battle. Liakhovich, now 35, has lost three out of his last five bouts since that time and incredibly has only fought five times in the past six years. To say that Liakhovich has failed to make the most of his career would be putting things lightly.

Brewster told eastsideboxing.com “Chambers destroys that guy [Liakhovich], and you will waste your time if you cover that fight. Call me after the fight and I’ll tell you I was right!”

It’s interesting to note that Brewster is choosing against a guy that he was beaten by six years ago. However, it doesn’t take much to see that Liakhovich isn’t at the same level he once was. He lost his fight to Robert Helenius by a 9th round TKO defeat in August of 2011. Although Liakhovich fought surprisingly well for someone who has been a part time fighter for the last five years before that bout, he made the mistake of standing in front of the hard hitting Helenius for too long and eventually got taken out.

Liakhovich lost his WBO title to Shannon Briggs in a 12h round TKO defeat in November 2006. Liakhovich then didn’t fight for close to two years until making a comeback and losing by a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision against Nikolay Valuev in a WBA heavyweight title eliminator in February 2008. Liakhovich fought with no fire and seemed to be just going through the motions in that fight. He followed that defeat with two wins over B level heavyweights before losing to Helenius last September.

Chambers, 29, is looking to get back in the heavyweight rankings. He’s currently not ranked to Chambers having fought only once since losing by a 12th round KO to IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko in March 2010. Chambers said for 11 months after that brutal knockout loss and came back last February to defeat Derric Rossy by a 12 round unanimous decision. But Chambers has done zero since that time until this fight on January 21. He’s got to start getting busier if he wants to get another title shot in the near future. At 29, Chambers can’t afford to let two more years slip by without getting another crack at a title.

Liakhovich, 6’4” 235, will have a considerable size advantage over the 6’1” 208lb Chambers and that could really help him if he’s able to stay on his feet and land some punches. Liakhovich seemed to run out of gas against Helenius in the 8th round. If he can avoid that happening to him against Chambers, he could win. However, it’s not likely given his lack of fights in the past six years.



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