by Geoffrey Ciani – This past week’s edition of On the Ropes featured exclusive interviews with Eddie Chambers, Jason Estrada, Roland Estrada, and Jesse Brinkley. Highlighting this episode was a nice conversation with the number one ranked heavyweight, Eddie Chambers, who is slated to challenge Wladimir Klitschko for his WBO and IBF heavyweight championship belts. Here are some excerpts from the Chambers interview:
On his recent victory against then undefeated heavyweight contender, Alexander Dimitrenko:
“The performance was pretty good. I give myself about a solid B, and the reason is because there were things I was doing in this here fight and it wouldn’t fly with Wladimir. I was standing in front of him too much, my legs were too straight and stiff, and I didn’t move as much as I should have been moving both to the target and away from the target.”
Regarding how the Dimitrenko fight has helped prepare him for Wladimir Klitschko:
“I think that Dimitrenko’s only thing was he wasn’t as strong. I guess that would mean his physical attributes weren’t up to par with Wladimir, but his ability, his boxing skills, his speed, his movement were—I don’t want to say more so than Wladimir, but at least on par with what he had. It’s just that he didn’t have the experience and he wasn’t ready for what I was bringing to the table.. I’m not sure that Wladimir will be either, but it’s definitely a situation in that fight right there that was the perfect fight to put me in a position to fight Wladimir. He’s not a mirror image of Wladimir, but close enough—something similar enough to keep the good things and throw away the bad.”
On his strategy for beating Klitschko:
“Well one thing is for sure, I mean, a lot of people decided as the smaller fighters, they try to move their head and get inside without any kind of jab or any kind of offense to work their way to the bigger fighter, and I think that is the biggest mistake. I think people let them use their height more by doing so.”
Regarding his speed and his movement as his key assets against Klitschko:
“It’s about being more consistent with a certain kind of attack. Now, I do believe that at times I will have him confused and looking for answers because he’s not going to be able to pinpoint that jab and land it with regularity as well as bringing that right hand behind it for a KO to land that big shot. So of course he’s going to find it confusing, but it’s going to be more about frustration.”
His prediction for his upcoming fight with Wladimir Klitschko:
“My victory. I never say I’m going to go in and knock him on in this round. I’m not a big smack talker or anything like that. I do my talking with my hands, and they’re going to do a lot of talking that night and I just predict that I’m going to come home the heavyweight champion of the world.”
Regarding his views on pound for pound king, Manny Pacquiao:
“When I first really got a good chance to see him was when he fought Marco Antonio Barrera. I was amazed. He was a little unsettled and a little green looking in a lot of ways, but he was firey, he had a lot of heart, and wanted to fight until the end, and that always wins me over. I’m high on him, very high on him. I would love to see the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight happen. I would love to see that fight happen, but I do have a good fight to look forward to hopefully with Mosley-Mayweather.”
His views on the upcoming mega bout between Floyd Mayweather and Shane Mosley:
“Shane is a strong, tough guy who comes to win every night and he goes for the knockout, so you never know, but right now I’m looking at Floyd probably by a close decision.”
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Jason Estrada
We also had a good discussion with heavyweight contender Jason Estrada and his father/trainer, Roland. Estrada is slated to face Tomasz Adamek this Saturday, February 6 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. Are here some quotes from Jason during the course of that interview:
On his training and preparations for his fight with Adamek:
“The camp has been great. I can’t complain. There haven’t been any problems with the camp, but sparring has been great, and the best thing is I’ve had so much time to prepare. That’s a benefit in and of itself, I never had this much time to prepare.”
On whether he believes Adamek is looking past him towards a potential April showdown with Chris Arreola:
“I’m not really worried about him looking past me and looking for other fights right after me like he’s going to walk in there and this fight is going to be easy for him. That’s his problem. That’s a problem with all of his people over there, and I’m not worried about it because I know what I’m going to do.”
His views on Adamek’s only fight at heavyweight against Andrew Golota:
“I can’t really get into that whole situation with him and Golota, because that wasn’t Golota. Golota during his best time, it would have been an easy fight for him. Adamek is way too small. But this was a Golota very, very, very, way past his prime.”
Regarding Adamek’s claim that he is as fast as Estrada and is also stronger than him:
“I laughed. I actually laughed, because I was basically a fan of Adamek way before this whole situation where me and him are supposed to fight. I don’t see how he could be faster than me. He wasn’t really that fast at light heavy, he wasn’t really that fast at cruiser, and now he’s put on an extra twenty pounds of muscles. How can he be faster and stronger than me, too? He can have his opinion, just like I have my opinion, the people on East Side Boxing have their opinion, people in the world have their opinions, and that’s all it is, is an opinion.”
How he thinks Eddie Chambers will fare in his upcoming fight with Wladimir Klitschko:
“You never know. Eddie Chambers is a slick, slick, slick fighter. Eddie Chambers is one of the best heavyweights. Other than myself, I got him way up there at the top, and with this fight coming up? Honestly, I’m rooting for Eddie. Me and Eddie are cool friends, so I’m rooting for Eddie.”
On what he perceives to be Adamek’s biggest weakness that he can exploit:
“I don’t even know if I can pick just one. Honestly, he does a lot of things wrong. His best asset is that he throws a lot of punches and he’s a pressure fighter, but you have to take into consideration that this is the heavyweight division. He’s not going to be the big strong guy that he thinks he is going to be because he’s measuring everything off the Andrew Golota win. This is huge difference. I’m not 40 years old, I’m not 45 years old, I’m not 50 years old or whatever Golota is. On top of his normal age, all the boxing years add on. It’s like a dog. A dog ages seven years to our one and that’s what boxing is, it’s like the same thing, and Golota was old—not just old in age, old in everything.”
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If you missed last week’s special edition of On the Ropes, be sure to tune in and listen now!
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