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Eddie Chambers Teleconference
By Barbara Pinnella
With his August 3 fight against Thabiso Mchunu fast
approaching, today there was a media conference call with
“Fast” Eddie Chambers. Also on the call were Main Events CEO
Kathy Duva, matchmaker for Chambers Jolene Mizzone, and
trainer James Bashir.
Here are quotes from the conference.
EDDIE CHAMBERS
Eddie started off by talking about his fights, both
victories and losses.
“The Adamek fight was fought with one hand and lots of
people really thought I won. Alexander Povetkin, once again
over in Germany, I agree that the fight got away from me
because of my activity down the stretch, because of what I
did in camp. The only fight that was a clear-cut victory for
the other person was Wladimir Klitschko. That’s a difficult
task for anyone. The guy is 6’6”, and it’s hard to look good
against him. I’ve had other big fights as well, and I’ve won
those fights in dominating fashion.
“Yes, I agree that dropping down to the cruiserweight
division, if I don’t look dominate, there is that risk that
the media will focus on that. But I don’t believe that that
will be too big a problem for me to handle. Winning cures
all. Even if you win by one point, you still won.
“I will be willing to step back up to heavy if Tomasz wants
to fight again, or anybody under 225 or so, I’d be willing.
I would be willing to step back up for the smaller heavys.
But I am not looking past the task next weekend. But we are
looking for the cruiserweight title. The experience I’ve had
at heavyweight has certainly helped me.
“But when you go down a weight class they’re more athletic
and slightly faster. But they are not gonna have a speed
advantage, no one is against me. But they’re slightly
faster, so that makes me prepare to be faster as well. It
forces me to be a bit stronger.
“Being with and learning from James Bashir, now I’m prepared
to be a champion. Now I know I have to exaggerate in some
areas and take it down in this area. All of that is helping
me in my cruiserweight campaign.
“My team in the past were so dead set that I had to fight at
heavyweight. I used to wish that I could fight smaller guys.
Why wouldn’t I try that? It didn’t take that much, just a
change in diet, but they just decided to keep me going
forward to stay at heavyweight. It was always going to be
very difficult to get the backing to be a heavyweight
champion.
“So what I should have done is what I’m doing now; going
down, trying to get my title down here. I’ve been thinking
about it for a long time. I just needed to make the decision
and not look back. Everyone in my team helped me make the
decision, and I’m happy.
“But it’s not that easy to be a champion. In the
heavyweight, you have one person with a title and he doesn’t
want to give it up. In the cruiserweight, there are four
guys sitting on belts. It’s almost the same, but I just want
to be a world champion. I see that possibility being a
little bit more possible at cruiserweight. I also can reign
there; I can go ahead and dominate these guys.
“The arm is strong, the surgeon did a great job, and I can
do everything the same with both hands now. As far as my
performance against Adamek, give me an A for effort, but I
didn’t get the victory. But he landed only 15% of his
punches, which is a very low number when you consider the
other guy only had one hand. But I think it was an overall
good performance, one of the best I’ve had, but getting the
loss, that’s kind of hard.”
When it was pointed out that he will be the bigger man in
the fight against Mchunu, Eddie quipped, “Wow, I feel like
Klitschko right now. No, being the taller guy poses
different problems. I’m used to being the small guy. When
you get in there with somebody shorter, now you’ve got to
reach down and out yourself in harms way to get your punches
in.
“I always work hard and train, even if I’m not training for
a fight. That keeps me in the right frame of mind. Nothing
is really different, just staying dedicated. We have studied
the clips, but there aren’t many of them. With him being a
southpaw, I’ll watch tapes of that to see the stance. We’ve
also watched looking for some of his weaknesses and even his
strengths, that might turn into weaknesses.
“Main Events gives the fans a chance to see an exciting
division. You put a guy in with Klitschko it’s a fight
that’s overmatched. You get two humongous guys in there and
the fight slows down and there’s not as many punches thrown.
But you get those smaller heavyweights or cruiserweights in
there, around 220 pounds, you get an exciting fight. You put
me in with David Haye, we will be throwing punches, and it’s
gonna look good, so why not put those fights on TV? That’s
what Kathy was talking about.
“I had to have faith. I was out for a year; I was not able
to work. I’m a human being, so when I come home and things
are due and you don’t have the ability to take care of them,
it’s very difficult, so I had to get in touch with my faith.
And my emotions are in the right place now.
JAMES BASHIR
“We’ll be prepared, for any lefty or any righty, whatever
the case might be. But in our preparation we watch other
fights, like James Toney versus Vissiliy Jirov. Fights of
that nature, where there’s gonna be an aggressive guy
against smooth boxers.
“Most of Thabiso’s fights have been in South Africa, so
he’ll have to make some adjustments in the ring, too. He
hasn’t faced the kind of versatility that he’ll have to face
with Eddie. The fight won’t be easy for either man. We
prepare for anything that this guy might bring to us. I fell
that he’s shorter guy, so he’s going to have to bring the
fight to Eddie. By doing so, he’ll present a lot of
opportunities to Eddie. I think he’ll be caught.
“Another fight we’ve paid attention to was Eddie Mustafa
Muhammad against Marvin Johnson. You’ve got heavy-handed
southpaws coming forward, but in doing so they all leave
opportunities to punch.
“You’re going to have to eat some to get some – it’s a
fight, and we welcome the fight. We look to fight other
fighters, not just the cruiserweights, because the
cruiserweights seem to be running for the hills. We’d like
to fight Seth Mitchell, if that fight became available. Guys
like that are within the range that Eddie should be
fighting. There needs to be a superheavyweight division for
over 225 pounds.
“You’ve got a Tyson Fury at 6’8” 260, 270, and then Eddie,
coming in at 213. It’s just ridiculous!
“Mchunu has to settle down to win the fight. I’m not going
to get stressed out about him jumping around the ring, or
this or that. I work with one of the most masterful boxers
in the history of the sport in Eddie Chambers. Mchunu can
bring whatever he wants to bring, but he’s gonna have to
box.”
KATHY DUVA
Kathy was asked if she felt Eddie get avoided a lot, since
he’s a slick boxer, and which fighters have avoided him?
“Well, I think Jolene is better to answer about which
fighters have avoided him. But I did have a conversation
with a promoter in Germany who has a lot of heavyweights,
and when I said that Eddie Chambers was available, then ‘Oh
no, this one’s not available, he’s busy,’ etc.
“But for this fight the Mchunu people asked for the fight.
When that happens, you know you will have a really nice,
competitive contest. It’s wonderful to see this guy stepping
up and taking on a challenge like Eddie Chambers, because
nobody has an easy fight with Eddie.
“I am after one organization. The idea is put your fighter
in with someone else who is rated in the top 10, if you win,
you move up. If you make it high enough he gets into a
mandatory position, he gets a title fight. So that would be
the first place we’re gonna aim. But if something came up in
one of the other organizations, we’d be happy.
“There’s another part of my plan, and not just about Eddie.
I believe some of the best fights I’ve ever seen have been
in the cruiserweight division, there’s a lot more action and
excitement below 220 pounds I think then there is above it.
I want to make the stations recognize this.
“God bless NBC, they see this, and my goal is to have
heavyweight and cruiserweight fights back on HBO. That will
create title fights for a lot of fighters. Turn into NBC
Sports Network for an exciting show, so I want to thank them
for all that they’ve done for us. I think this show is gonna
be a big one.”
JOLENE MIZZONE
“Damien Michaels is the promoter for Thabiso and we had been
in touch for about a year now. He kept asking if I could
work with his guy and could I work with him. I said I had
Eddie Chambers, who’s a cruiserweight, and I know you guys
will probably never fight him. It took a matter of two
minutes for him to go talk with his fighter and come back
and say they’ll take the fight. He and his fighter jumped at
the chance to fight Chambers. This started back in April. I
didn’t think they were serious at first, but he kept
emailing me saying, ‘Can we have the fight, can we have the
fight?’
“They didn’t want to fight him at heavyweight, and it’s
harder now to get fights with Eddie at cruiserweight,
because people know the skills that Eddie has. And now he’s
at the weight that he probably should have been at. I’m sure
at cruiserweight he’s going to be faster and stronger at
that weight.
“You know, he was out for quite a while after his injury in
the Adamek fight. We all believe he will dominate this
division. We can’t look past August 3, but both Bashir and
Eddie have called me – they will fight anybody. But right
now let’s see if Eddie can dominate the cruiserweight
division. He can switch back and forth. I don’t know what’s
gonna happen. But BoxRec has given this fight five stars.
For a fight of this level, to get five stars tells you that
there’s something going on here.”
What did she see in the opponent to want to make the fight?
“Well, he’s a southpaw, and knowing that Eddie’s style would
be the perfect style for him, my job is to get a good fight
for my fighter while at the same time giving NBC a good
fight. I have to play both sides. This guy called and asked
for the fight. I felt this was the perfect fight for him at
this time. This guy’s not gonna come and sit down, Eddie’s
gonna get the work from this guy, and Eddie needs the work.
“I also have to put on good fights for the network and for
the public, so I have to play both sides. Knowing that they
called and asked for the fight, and that Eddie’s hungry, and
coming into cruiserweight, I thought it was the perfect
opposition for him at this time.”
With reference to Eddie losing credibility if he fails
against a top name cruiserweight fight, Jolene said, “I’m
not worried at all. He’s still very young, I know he’s been
around awhile, but he’s younger than most of the guys in
both the cruiser and heavyweight divisions.
“People put too much into losing a fight. Eddie lost a fight
to Adamek when he was fighting with one hand. He was still
throwing punches at the end of the Klitschko fight, and he’s
always in the other guys’ home town, always in Europe. He’s
home now, and I think that’s gonna change a lot for him.”
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