Kauffman defeats Mendoza; Chambers destroys Brown

By Boxing News - 09/19/2015 - Comments

By Tim Fletcher: Heavyweight Travis Kauffman (30-1, 24 KOs) stopped 39-year-old journeyman Epifanio Mendoza (41-22-1, 35 KOs) by a 2nd round knockout on Friday night at the Claridge Hotel in Atlantic City, NJ. The fight was stopped in the 2nd round after Kauffman dropped Mendoza with a hard left-right to the midsection that put him down.

The fight was then halted by referee Alan Huggins. The loss was Mendoza’s third defeat in his last four fights. Mendoza started his career out as a junior middleweight 16 years ago in 1999, and he’s steadily moved up in weigh through the years.

At 30, Kauffman needs to move his career along at a faster pace because he’s not facing the top 10 tier opposition. He’s been a pro since 2006, and yet he’s still fighting journeyman level opposition after nine years in the game. In 2009, Kauffman was stopped in the 4th round by Tony Grano. He never avenged the defeat unfortunately.

“On a scale of one to ten, I’d have to give myself a 9,” Kauffman said via fightnews.com. “That guy was a veteran. I think this was one of my best performances.”

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Former world title challenger Eddie “fast” Chambers (42-4, 23 KOs) won his 6th straight fight in defeating 34-year-old journeyman Galen Brown (42-32-1, 25 KOs) by a 3rd round knockout. The 33-year-old Chambers knocked Brown down in the 2nd round with a right to the head. In the 3rd, Chambers scored a knockdown when he slammed as big right hand to the head of Brown that sent him reeling into the ropes. It was scored as a knockdown despite Brown not officially hitting the canvas. Chambers then knocked Brown down with a hard right. The fight was then stopped by Mary Glover at 1:34 of the round.

Chambers weighed a career high of 230 pounds for the fight. He seems to be bulking up after spending most of his 15-year pro career fighting in the 205-220 range. At 6’1”, Chambers is a smaller heavyweight, and he lacks the big punching power of the larger fighters in the division. In 2012, Chambers melted down to 196 to fight at cruiserweight against Thabiso Mchunu, but the weight loss clearly weakened him causing him to lose by a one-sided 10 round unanimous decision. Chambers then moved back up to the heavyweight division, where he’s won his last six fights against journeyman level opposition.

In 2012, Chambers was beaten by Tomasz Adamek by a controversial 12 round decision. Chambers appeared to dominate Adamek one-handed, and yet found himself on the receiving end of the judges’ scores of 116-112, 116-112 and 119-109. The last score of 119-109 by judge Alan Rubenstein was an especially strange score considering that Chambers was hitting Adamek at all will with pot shots and making him look bad throughout the fight. Chambers landed the more telling and better cleaning shots, but the judges saw Adamek as the better man. The fight took place in Newark, New Jersey, where Adamek frequently fights.

Chambers was stopped in the 12th round in 2010 by IBF/IBO/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko. Chambers knocked unconscious by a left hook in the 12th round of the contest. Wladimir’s trainer, the last Emanuel Steward, pressed Wladimir to go for the knockout in the 12th, and he obliged by nailing Chambers with a big left hook. Wladimir looked almost clumsy in that round in loading up on left hooks, and missing over and over again with them until he finally caught Chambers with a huge shot with five seconds to go in the fight.
Chambers defeated the hard hitting Samuel Peter and Alexander Dimitrenko in 2009.

Chambers needs to start fighting quality opposition again. It’s been two years since he last fought a good opponent in 2012. He’s obviously trying to remake his career following his back to back losses to Thabiso Mchunu and Tomasz Adamek. But it shouldn’t be taking Chambers this long for him to get back in the swing of things.

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Undefeated super middleweight prospect Dauren Yeleussinov (4-0, 3 KOs) stopped journeyman Justin Williams (4-11-2, 2 KOs) by a 2nd round knockout. Yeleussinov dropped Williams two times in the 2nd.

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Unbeaten cruiserweight Keith Tapia (16-0, 11 KOs) kept his perfect record intact with 1st round knockout over Anthony Caputo (15-6, 10 KOs). Tapia flatted Caputo with a right to the head. The fight was then stopped by referee Marry Glover.

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Other boxing results on the card:

Danny Kelly TKO 1 Jimmy Suarez
Pavlo Ishchenko TKO 2 Nicholas Rodriguez



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