by James Slater: Last night, in Rochester, Minnesota, 24 year old heavyweight Raphael Butler stopped 39 year old veteran Otis Tisdale in four rounds. With the win, Butler improved his record to 31-4(24) and, more importantly, kept his June date with the returning Eddie Chambers very much alive. Butler unleashed a number of hard head shots on Tisdale last night, prompting referee Mark Nelson to jump in and call the fight off at 1 minute and 48 seconds of the fourth. Tisdale fell to 25-20-1(15)..
The win last night may not have proved too much, but Butler, a big guy at 6’3″ and around 250 pounds, has now won his last six in a row – 4 by stoppage. A win over Chambers, who will be having his first fight back since his points loss to Alexander Povetkin in January, and Butler will be right in the thick of things near the top of the heavyweight division. Butler can punch, with his 24 stoppage victories proving as much. Yes, he has lost four times, but two of these setbacks can be attributed to being nothing much more than early-career learning experiences. And of his two more recent defeats, one was a points loss and the other – an 8th round TKO loss to Art Binkowski back in April of last year – saw Butler floor his man three times in the very first round. Indeed, Butler was extremely unlucky not to have got the win over Binkowski.
So although his record doesn’t look all that great on paper, Butler is tough and is also a dangerous guy. Chambers had better not take him lightly, that’s for sure. The bout is a good one for “Fast” Eddie to come back with. Sure, he should win it, with his skill level being superior to Butler’s, but after losing for the very first time any fighter can be affected. Will Chambers be the same confident heavyweight he used to be, now that he knows he can be beaten?
Though he himself has never been stopped and is the technically better fighter, the 26 year old Chambers will be meeting a hugely motivated rival in Butler. If he himself is not prepared for a hard night’s work, Chambers may find himself getting upset. Both men are young, in good shape and presumably still hungry – Butler certainly is hungry. As a result, June 20th’s clash should be an extremely lively affair.