Povetkin Too Much For Chambers

alexander povetkinBy V.S. at ringside: Undefeated Alexander Povetkin (15-0, 11 KOs) had an easy time tonight defeating previously unbeaten American Eddie Chambers (30-1, 16 KOs) by a lopsided 12-round unanimous decision at the Tempodrom, Kreuzberg, in Berlin, Germany.

With this win, Povetkin becomes the mandatory challenger for IBF heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko. The first three rounds were heated, with Chambers landing a number of hard combinations. However, after the 3rd round, the 28 year-old 2004 gold medalist Povetkin took over the fight, badly outworking Chambers the rest of the way.

The final judges’ scores were 117-111, 119-109, 116-112. I personally gave Chambers only one round, the third in which he landed a number of hard combinations. Even then, however, Chambers was outworked by Povetkin, who never seemed to never stop punching all fight long. By the end of the fight, both fighters’ faces were marked up, with Chambers right side of his cheek almost a beet red, and Povetkin sporting a dark bruise under his left eye.

In the first couple of rounds, the fight went as I thought it would, as Povetkin came forward focusing on volume punching, while Chambers was content to pick his shots. Unfortunately for Chambers, he was getting badly outlanded much of the time, and he did nothing to make adjustments as the fight progressed. He did land several hard combinations in both rounds, getting Povetkin’s attention. The shots were both hard and fast, but had little effect in slowing down Povetkin’s offensive attacks, as he continued raining punches on Chambers without missing a beat.

In round three, arguably Chamber’s best round of the fight, he landed a couple of hard right hands that snapped Povetkin’s head back violently. The punches were made even more impressive due to the fact that Chambers was fighting at an economical pace, even at this early point in the fight. It was if he were trying to save himself for the later rounds of the fight.

Chambers continued landing occasional big shots in the fourth round, hitting Povetkin with a sneaky right hand early on. Around midpoint of the round, Chambers knocked Povetkin off balance with a big left hand. It was an excellent punch, thrown with almost blinding speed. Towards the end of the round, Chambers landed a perfect 1-2 combination that seemed to momentarily stun Povetkin. However, the punch came right at the end of the round, preventing Chambers from following up with additional shots. By this point in the fight, Povetkin’s left eye began to bruise from Chamber’s hard right hands.

Starting in the 5th round, Chamber’s offense dropped off to almost nothing. It was odd, as he didn’t look particularly tired, yet from this point on, he threw very few punches in each round. Povetkin, who had been somewhat cautious of Chambers in the previous round, suddenly became more bold and began to hit Chambers with near impunity without having to face much return fire.

Povetkin dominated in rounds six through twelve, walking Chambers down and hitting him with combinations to the head and body. In between rounds, Chambers’ trainer attempted to get him back into the fight, urging him to throw more punches. However, Chambers was unable to follow their advice and let his hands go. After the fight, Chambers mentioned it as being a mental thing, but it seemed more like he just didn’t have the stamina to throw any more than a handful of punches each round. In previous bouts, he’s generally been an economical puncher, and this fight was no exception. The difference here was that Povetkin was much busier than any of Chamber’s previous opponents, and never let up on him for a second.

For his part, Povetkin began to look badly fatigued by the 6th round, gasping for breath and looking winded. It didn’t matter though. By this time, the fight had turned into a one big sparring match, for Chambers was no longer fighting back much and was mostly covering up, taking punishment. Despite the fact that Povetkin didn’t have to worry about any incoming shots, he was unable to finish off Chambers.

Povetkins’ punches, while heavy and high in number, weren’t powerful enough to put Chambers in any kind of difficulty. Clearly, this is something that Povetkin is going to have to work on now that he’s the mandatory challenger for International Boxing Federation heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko.

I want to personally thank Sauerland Event for the excellent treatment I received from them tonight.