04.07.09 – “Fast” Eddie Chambers dominated and outclassed Alexander Dimitrenko over twelve rounds in Hamburg, Germany tonight. A left hook to the kidney made the Ukrainian turn his back and complain to the referee, who then ruled it a legal blow and started a standing eight count in the 7th. Chambers floored Dimitrenko in the 10th round for the second ruled knockdown of the fight.
In round 12, Dimitrenko seemed out on his feet, but managed to somehow survive to the end. The judges scored the fight 113-113 (!!), 116-111, 117-109 in favor of Chambers, who is now the mandatory challenger for WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, and will likely get a chance against the 6’6” Klitschko sometime in early 2010.
Undercard results:
Susi Kentikian W 10 Carolina Marcela Gutierrez Gaite
Alexander Alexeev TKO 3 Kendrick Releford
Alesia Graf W 10 Terri Lynn Cruz
Chambers never had problems with Dimitrenko in the first rounds of the bout. Dimitrenko began to wear down starting in the 6th and began to allow Chambers to creep in punching range so that he could get his shorter combinations off. In the 7th round, Chambers landed two punches after the bell ending the round and then let out a loud roar as he pumped his fist into the air.
Dimitrenko began to look beat up by this point, blood dripping from his nose and swelling under both eyes. Although he was doing a decent job with his jab, he had no real power to keep Chambers off of him. Chambers continued to fight well in the 8th round, getting in close and nailing Dimitrenko with uppercuts to the head and short left hooks.
Instead of trying to tie Chambers up while he was in close, Dimitrenko often just covered up like a sparring partner and let Chambers tee off on him. This likely won’t be the case when Chambers meets up with WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, who doesn’t allow his shorter opponents to fight in close like this without being tied up in a clinch.
In the 9th round, Dimitrenko came back strong, firing off right hands and moving incredibly well for a 6’7″ heavyweight. He gave Chambers a lot of problems in the round with his movement and combinations. In the 10th round, Chambers dropped Dimitrenko with a left hook that knocked the Ukrainian’s mouthpiece out and send him backwards.
Dimitrenko never actually went down but rather his right glove hit the canvas to prevent himself from falling down. However, he was clearly hurt because he staggered to the referee as he was getting his mouthpiece put back in. For the remaining seconds of the round Chambers went after Dimitrenko in vain nailing him with uppercuts but mostly missing with his shots trying to knock him out.
The 11th round was close with both fighters trading shots back and forth making it difficult to tell who was getting the better of the action. Chambers ate a lot of jabs and right hands in the round due to his limited height and reach and didn’t do all that much. In the 12th round, Chambers hurt Dimitrenko with a big uppercut causing him to stumble slightly. However, Dimitrenko fought back hard up until the final bell in some good toe to toe action.
It was a good win for Chambers. But with that said, he probably won’t be much of a threat for Wladimir Klitschko. In facing Dimitrenko, Chambers didn’t have to worry about getting hit with a powerful jab, left hook or right hand and was able to take advantage of Dimitrenko’s lack of power and inability to keep Chambers on the outside. With Wladimir, Chambers will be getting hit very hard and won’t be able to get in close in the same way he was doing against Dimitrenko. As such, Chambers will probably be lucky to last four or five rounds at best.