ShoBox: The New Generation will celebrate its 100th telecast with arguably the finest match-up and most significant heavyweight fight in the series’ distinguished six-year history. The heavyweight “Battle for the Ages” will pit “Fast” Eddie Chambers (29-0, 16 KOs) against Calvin “The Boxing Banker” Brock (31-1, 23 KOs) in an International Boxing Federation (IBF) heavyweight title eliminator Friday, Nov. 2, 2007, on ShoBox: The New Generation (live on SHOWTIME at 11 p.m. ET/PT delayed on the west coast).
Goossen Tutor Promotions and Main Events will present the 12-round title elimination bout from the Emerald Queen Casino in Tacoma, Wash.
DeBLASIO: Good morning and good afternoon. Thank you very much for being on this call. My name is Chris DeBlasio, director of communications for Showtime Sports Programming. I want to welcome you to a very important and very significant media conference call we have for an exciting fight on November 2nd, ShoBox: The New Generation at 11 p.m., featuring Calvin Brock and Eddie Chambers.
Brock and Chambers will meet in an IBF title eliminator, and the winner of which will face the winner of the Chris Byrd versus Alex Povetkin fight, which is happening this weekend. A very significant heavyweight fight for the division on a very special night for Showtime and ShoBox: The New Generation.
As many of you know, since 2001, the acclaimed Showtime boxing series ShoBox: The New Generation has featured young talented fighters in tough matches. The ShoBox philosophy is to televise crowd‑pleasing and competitive fights while providing a proving ground for willing prospects determined to fight for a world title.
I think it’s safe to say that both Eddie and Calvin are looking forward to joining a growing list of fighters who have fought on ShoBox and gone onto garner world titles. Right now that list includes 20 fighters, including the latest fighter who fought on ShoBox and subsequently won a world title in Kelly Pavlik.
I’d like to welcome Calvin Brock, Eddie Chambers and their respective promoters, Kathy Duva of Main Events and Dan Goossen of Goossen Tutor Promotions. Here for some initial comments, I’d like to start ladies first, Kathy, welcome to the call.
DUVA: Hi, thank you.
DeBLASIO: Tell us a little bit about this fight and match‑up for your fighter and the significance of it on ShoBox.
DUVA: Well, as you pointed out, these are young fighters who want to fight for the title. That’s what Calvin wants to do. There’s a great deal going on in the heavyweight division right now. I believe that the Klitschko‑Ibragimov fight was just made to unify the title. I think that’s a great start. Of course, the winner of this fight is participating in a title eliminator that will lead them to become the mandatory challenger for the IBF title.
It’s all good. That’s where Calvin wants to be. He did not hesitate to take on this challenge in order to give him the opportunity to get to what he wants, which is the heavyweight championship.
DeBLASIO: Thank you very much. To reiterate, there is a lot going on in the heavyweight division. Last week we had a ShoBox fight card that featured heavyweight prospects Travis Walker and T.J. Wilson. We have this fight on November 2nd. Of course, on November 16th, we have Chris Arreola fighting in another special edition of ShoBox that’s going to originate from the eastern Caribbean island of St. Lucia. We are very excited about these three consecutive heavyweight fight cards on ShoBox.
Here representing his fighter and several other heavyweight prospects is Mr. Dan Goossen. Welcome, Dan.
GOOSEN: Thanks, Chris. I’m not too thrilled with you mentioning last week’s fight. I’ve tried to shy away from remembering that 15‑second debacle. But, no, it was good to have it on ShoBox. As a lot of the media and Showtime knows, we’ve done quite a bit with ShoBox. Certainly a lot of our young kids who we promote have really gotten their start on the ShoBox series and parlayed those into championships. We have one of our guys, Robert Guerrero, fighting for a world title on SHOWTIME the night after Nov. 2.
The heavyweight division, as far as I’m concerned especially with the fans, drives the market to levels that are unprecedented when you have that heavyweight star that the fans get behind. Unifications are good for the business, and we have one with Klitschko coming up and I have another fighter, Tony Thompson, who is the mandatory to Ibragimov. But what’s going to be better for the business is one of these new fresh faces that may emerge from this group or this tournament that’s been ordered by the IBF. I think it is tremendous, because it can capture the fans’ fancy.
Now, Calvin has had his shot. I don’t believe, and Kathy can correct me if she chooses to, I don’t believe anyone would have been thrilled if Calvin would have gotten another shot at the heavyweight championship, especially against Klitschko, without really earning it and just being in the position to take it. But a victory, the winner of this tournament, no matter who it may be, Povetkin, Byrd, Brock or Chambers, has earned his right to challenge that heavyweight champion, whoever it is, at that particular point.
We believe very strongly that Eddie Chambers is the little big man in this tournament and in the heavyweight division. A lot of people like to think of him more as a defensive fighter. We just think of him as a tremendous fighter. We had our first fight together back when he fought Dominic Jenkins. My good friend Rob Murray Sr. and his son Rob Murray Jr. had been showcasing Eddie in the Philadelphia area. We brought him out to Reno to fight underneath a James Toney‑Dominick Guinn fight. At that point, Dominic Jenkins had just beaten three undefeated fighters. Eddie went out there and destroyed Dominic, stopping him in five rounds. After that he fought Derric Rossy, an undefeated kid out of New York and a former football player from Boston College. A real tough fighter, but he stopped him in seven rounds. Then on his ShoBox debut on SHOWTIME back at the Palms Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas on May 4th, he does what he’s been doing to everybody in front of him, beating them soundly. That’s what he did with Dominick Guinn.
November 2, I think it’s a great event on SHOWTIME, ShoBox. I think it’s the best fight they’ve ever had in their series, and you’ve had some great compelling fights.
But this I believe will be a tremendous fight. We believe Eddie Chambers is going to be successful November 2. We knew getting Calvin Brock in this fight was going to be a tough nut for Eddie to conquer because I know Calvin very well. I respect him a lot. He’s a tremendous fighter. I know he’s going to come with everything on the line. So we expect a great fight. It’s what we’re excited about. I know that SHOWTIME is excited about it. We believe we’ve got the young man that’s going to be successful in this whole tournament.
Chris, if you don’t mind, I’d like to introduce our undefeated heavyweight, “Fast” Eddie Chambers. For those of you that haven’t really had a chance to see him fight, November 2, will be a nice night to tune in.
DeBLASIO: We’ll let you introduce Eddie in just a moment. Dan, I agree with you, on behalf of Gordon Hall, our executive producer, who books all the fights on ShoBox, the producer Richard Gaughan, director Rick Phillips, and our announcers Nick Charles and Steve Farhood, we are very excited about November 2. We are very excited about this telecast being our 100th episode of ShoBox. Just putting young, talented and hungry fighters matched against one another has really been a key to success. It seems very simple, but you get two guys that are hungry for a chance to fight for a world title, they come out and put on crowd‑pleasing events. We’ve seen it time and time again. We appreciate everyone’s support. ShoBox has been a wonderful series for the fans and gotten tremendous accolades.
GOOSEN: I agree.
DeBLASIO: We’ll open it up to questions.
Question: I’d like to ask a question for Eddie. Dan laid out before a lot of your fights in the past, you fought at the blue Horizon. You started to step up with the Derric Rossy fight, and the Dominick Guinn fight. Now you’re taking on Calvin, who is a former world title challenger. Tell us why at this stage of your career you think you’re ready to make what’s really a big step up for you?
CHAMBERS: Well, because over time, over the course of all my years in Philadelphia, I’ve been brought up, like you said, through the Blue Horizon fighting all kinds of different fighters, good fighters, tough fighters, fighter that not many people have heard of. That just got me prepared. Rob Murray Sr. and Jr. got me prepared to take this next step and fight a top‑level fighter like Calvin Brock.
Question: Calvin, this is sort of a reversal of roles for you because in the past you’ve been more the hunter on the title division. Now you seem to be a little bit more the hunted. You’re older, coming off that loss to Klitschko a couple fights ago. Tell us how you’re prepared to deal with a younger, undefeated, up‑and‑coming heavyweight.
BROCK: Well, fortunately for myself, Eddie is not the first undefeated boxer that I have faced. I mean, I took on Ibragimov, when he was undefeated. I took on Terry Smith’s undefeated record. I took on one or two others with undefeated records. The Ibragimov and Smith matches were televised. I beat those guys with no problem, you know. I was once undefeated myself until I lost to Klitschko.
I have a lot of respect for Eddie Chambers as a person and even as a boxer, but his undefeated record really doesn’t scare me. I’m motivated to become heavyweight champion of the world again. I have a new team with my dad, training full time with my dad. Everything is refreshed. We got a new start. So it’s like starting back over again. I’ve been boxing for six years now and have 32 fights underneath my record.
DUVA: Calvin’s reputation speaks for itself. He is an Olympian. He won every one of his professional fights, except against the current heavyweight champion. You know, I think he gained a great deal of experience in that fight. It’s kind of unfortunate that the boxing business is set up in such a way that the best way to gain experience is when you’re very young to go in there and fight the heavyweight champion. It happened to Wladimir Klitschko, that’s how he learned, and I think that’s how Calvin learned. We’re quite confident that the next time he gets into that fight he’s going to be prepared to win it. This is all part of that process.
We’re very excited about it. He always puts on a great fight. People are always entertained when he’s in the ring. He is now the more experienced, seasoned pro in this situation. That’s kind of a new thing for Calvin. He’s reached that point, I think. A lot of guys cross over from being the contender who is coming up, the young guy, to the point where he’s the guy who has got the experience and the name and the reputation. Now he’s the man to beat.
I know Calvin well enough to know that he’s well aware of that. One of the most wonderful things about him is he’s a guy that never lets things go to his head. He’s always in there to work as hard as he has to and please the fans, so that’s what he’s going to do. I’m looking forward to watching it myself.
DeBLASIO: Calvin, can you tell us a little bit about your training thus far and how you prepare for a fighter like “Fast” Eddie Chambers.
BROCK: I’m prepared to go in very well‑conditioned and box smart like always to the best of my ability. I am going to try and hit and not get hit. I will do that no matter what style it takes in the ring. I look forward to everybody seeing me, tuning in on November 2, to see how I go about achieving my next win.
DeBLASIO: How do you see this fight going? Going the distance, a lengthy fight, tactical battle?
BROCK: I don’t know. I really just free my mind on trying to figure out how the boxing match is going to go because I never can tell until the bell rings and the boxing match starts. But I know I have the capability of changing my style and doing whatever it takes to come out the winner.
DeBLASIO: Eddie, how do you see this fight going? What do you see in Calvin in order to prepare for a fighter with his style?
CHAMBERS: I got to agree with him, you never really can tell what’s going to happen till you get in there. But when he gets in front of me, it’s going to be a different ballgame maybe from what he’s seen or heard. You know what I mean? It’s a lot different when the actual fight starts.
But I’ve been training with some top‑level competition, with Chad Witherspoon, Tony Thompson, who was mentioned earlier. They’ve given me the best work I possibly can ask for to get me prepared for top‑level competition like this here fight with Calvin.
As far as saying how it goes, I can win by either decision or by knock‑out. Whatever happens, I’m not going to be upset about it as long as I come out the winner.
DeBLASIO: Eddie, you’re coming off a fight with Dominick Guinn back in May, also on ShoBox. That was your ShoBox debut. Tell us a little bit about that experience fighting Guinn. It was a great performance. What did you take away from that fight?
CHAMBERS: I learned some things. I learned that you got to get in there and do whatever it takes to win, whether it be boxing or even brawling, whatever you need to do to win. He was a tough fighter. He came to fight me this time. He came in shape. He came well prepared and tough. So I had to dig down deep and find a way to get out and win. It just gave me a ton of experience and moved me to this level here with this fight with Calvin Brock.
GOOSEN: I’ve heard a lot of things from the media, asking ‘Why Tacoma?’ Even my fighter asked that question, ‘Why Tacoma?’ You know what, wherever we can bring these fighters, November 2, was a very, very tough day to find a site, there were very few arenas, casinos, anything open. But we’ve had some big fights out there. I think Vernon Forrest and Carlos Baldomir fought there a few months ago. To have this fight on SHOWTIME at the Emerald Queen Casino, I’m very happy we found a site, Calvin and Eddie, okay? Tacoma is it.
You heard both fighters. They’re both classy guys. Calvin, you’ve seen him in front of those cameras for years. He’s always handled himself like a world class fighter. And Eddie Chambers, you just got a little taste of him, the media that’s on the phone here. These are great representatives of our industry. By the time this tournament is over, like I said, we’re going to have the media buzzing all around these guys.
DeBLASIO: I think that’s part of the development of fighters and part of the point of having a series like ShoBox on TV.
GOOSEN: That’s right, 100 percent.
DeBLASIO: Maybe I could ask one more question of both fighters. We’ll start with Calvin. The list of fighters on ShoBox that have fought on ShoBox and have gone on to win world titles is pretty much a who’s who of world champions nowadays. Among them is Juan Diaz, Ricky Hatton, Joan Guzman, Juan Urango, David Diaz and Robert Guerrero, Kelly Pavlik. Tell me what it means for you to fight on Showtime and on the ShoBox series.
BROCK: It’s another great opportunity to be highly exposed on cable television. It’s SHOWTIME. I’m very happy to be making my debut on SHOWTIME. That’s the one cable outlet I haven’t boxed on. I’m looking forward to it on November 2, then hopefully joining the rest of those names as the heavyweight champion of the world.
DeBLASIO: Eddie, same question to you. What does it mean for you to fight on ShoBox? You had your performance against Dominick Guinn, got you national television exposure. Certainly it wasn’t your first time. What is the significance of fighting on the ShoBox series?
CHAMBERS: I’m blessed to be under such great fighters that have gone on to do such great things in this sport. This is just one step for me. Like I said, Showtime has done me proud, put me in with a good fighter in Guinn and really let me showcase my talent and put myself with Calvin Brock and top fighters of the division.
DeBLASIO: Great. I’d like to thank Calvin, Eddie, Kathy Duva and Dan Goossen for your time. I’m looking forward to Friday, November 2, 11 p.m. on SHOWTIME, a very significant fight, the 100th episode of ShoBox and the IBF title eliminator fight. Thank you, everyone, for your time.
GOOSEN: Thank you, everybody.
DUVA: Thank you.