MANILA, Philippines – If Manny Pacquiao thinks all he has to do to win on May 7 is show up on fight night, he is terribly mistaken.
Shane Mosley said it is not right to count him out against Pacquiao when they wage a 12-round welterweight war at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas for the simple reason that he looked dull in his last two fights against Floyd Mayweather and Sergio Mora.
“Do people have blinders on?” said Mosley as quoted by Michael Rosenthal of The Ring, who was in Big Bear, California, during an open workout held last Tuesday.
Mosley said he has all the physical tools to put an end to the rampaging ways of Pacquiao, who has terrorized those who dared to cross paths with him.
Counting on his size, speed and power, Mosley said that if a lumbering guy like Antonio Margarito can land his best blows on Pacquiao, what more if the guy in front of the Filipino pound-for-pound king is him?
“I have all the (physical) adv
Pacman thrilled to have Azkals watch his bout
MANILA, Philippines – Manny Pacquiao sounded pleased after hearing reports that the Philippine Azkals wanted to watch his upcoming fight this May 7.
The boxing superstar said it's an honor to have the country's booters watch him, as he takes on "Sugar" Shane Mosley at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
"Manonood daw sila. Karangalan ko na nandoon sila, makasuporta sa akin," he told in an exclusive interview with abs-cbnNEWS.com.
Pacquiao is in the US preparing for his match against Mosley. He will be defending his World Boxing Organization welterweight belt from the American.
Pacquiao stressed that, like what the Azkals have been trying to do in their matches, he will again try to make the country proud during his fight abroad.
"Para sa ating bansa ang bawat laban na ito," he said.
A few members of the Azkals, on the other hand, are in Daly City, California, supervising tryouts for other Filipinos interested to join the team.
They would love to watch Fighter of the Decade Pacquiao inside the MGM Grand if given the chance, they earlier said.
“We can drive down and see him. We haven’t seen him train. We’d like to see him,” Azkals player Anton Del Rosario said. – With report from Dennis Gasgonia, abs-cbnNEWS.com
Q & A with “Fast” Eddie Chambers
As the old saying goes it’s not the size of the dog in the fight it’s the size of the fight in the dog” and this certainly applies to “Fast” Eddie Chambers. He lives in a world of Heavyweight giants, pretty much every opponent in his career has had height, reach and weight advantages over him. As you can see by his 36-2(18) record among the pro’s he’s more than held his own. The 29 year old debuted back in 2000 and learned on the job until he started 2007 when he made a move from the Heavyweight pack beating Derric Rossy KO7, Dominick Guinn PTS10 & then outpointing Calvin Brock in an IBF title eliminator. That win set him up to fight Alexander Povetkin, a former Olympic gold medalist. It was to be Chambers first defeat but he had learned a lot from fighting on the road for the first time as a pro. After four more wins the later being against Samuel Peter who he outpointed. He again traveled to Germany, this time he took on 6’7 behemoth Alexander Dimitrenko who outweighed him by in excess of 40 pounds. Not to be denied he boxed the fight of his life stunner the previously unbeaten Ukrainian again on points. The win set him up for a title challenge when he met Wladimir Klitschko in Germany in early 2010. Like many men previous he found it difficult to get past the big man and was stopped late in the twelfth. It hasn’t affected his desire, after 11 months off when he let the battle scars mentally & physically heal he rebounded to outpoint old adversary Rossy over the distance back in February. No he intends to watch several other fights play out over the next few months before looking for another big fight.
Hello, Eddie, welcome to 15rounds.com
Anson Wainwright – Back in February you returned from a near year long absence and beat Derric Rossy. Can you tell us about the fight and how happy you were to be back in action?
Eddie Chambers – Umm well I wasn’t happy with my performance. I feel like to a degree I gave my best but I still expected more from me even in the weakened state I was. It was a good comeback fight; there was a lot on the line. I just really wanted to dazzle the crowd and also get a stoppage, that’s what I expected. Beat the guy like I beat him the last time (Chambers scored a seventh round TKO over Derric Rossy in 2007) Of course he’s gotten better, but no matter how much better he is than before I think, I’m on another level and I think I’d have proved it further if I’d stopped him. But all the respect to Rossy who took the shots and continued to fight the way he did through out the fight.
Anson Wainwright – Though it’s early days when are you looking at fighting next & who are you targeting?
Eddie Chambers – Well honestly with me I’m just targeting the top guy. My goal obviously is to be world champion and I’ve been close at one time or another. I think that’s where I should be looking but everything that will get me toward that, any kind of fight with name fighters. I know there’s some fights already made up and I just want to let them happen so I won’t make any decision right away with Haye fighting Wladimir, Adamek fighting Kevin McBride. So there’s really not a lot for me to go at right now as far as top contenders for the titles. So we’ll just sit back and wait just a bit. Then jump in with whoever’s ready. Of course you know and everybody knows I’ll fight anybody and I’m looking for that soon. So hopefully I get that opportunity to fight for the title again. I’d like to fight Haye but of course he’s fighting Wladimir and not looking to fight a tough fight with me who’s not really to well known to away fans. He wouldn’t have much to make from me & Wladimir as well, but it’s not to be because what’s the point he’s beaten me already all he has is to lose. So why not just go about there business and fight each other and leave me in the rear view. I’d love to get those guys in the ring & hopefully that comes very very soon.
Anson Wainwright – Of course in 2010 you challenged Wladimir Klitschko for his IBF & WBO Heavyweight titles; you were stopped late in the twelfth. What can you tell us about that fight from your point of view? Was it a good learning curve despite the defeat? How good do you think he is?
Eddie Chambers – You’ve got to say great. I believe I’m just as good as anybody period, skill wise and ability wise but they go into the fight with a plan coupled with Emmanuel Steward but there’s no unbeatable force right now. I believe If I had had the right plan and been in the right state of mind to execute that plan I think just as he was successful, I could of been successful, it just happens that way. But he has a heck of a championship pedigree, he’s been there years now, he’s been world number one for a long time. He has to go down in the era as one of the greats of Boxing especially Heavyweight Boxing. So the plan they had worked to perfection as it does most other times. When I say perfection there was a lot of difficulty he had with me in some areas as far as landing some shots, there was frustration there but that’s because of my ability and toughness. I didn’t bring enough focus to deal with the preparation he had. I was in great shape I was prepared physically but mentally I wasn’t prepared for what It meant, when you see 55,000+ in the stadium I realized this is something big and then when you get in the ring you realize there’s a whole lot more on the line and you have to get your feet wet a little bit. I didn’t have a huge amateur background, I did have experience but I was never really able to see that before except in the fight before which was Dimitrenko which was on a much smaller scale, though it was important to my career. I’ve seen it and fought the great Klitschko now I have to prove I’m great. I may never get another shot at him (Wladimir) but at least there will be some guys that I can prove that on in the future.
Anson Wainwright – You didn’t fight in 11 months after the Klitschko fight. What did you do with your time off?
Eddie Chambers – Well I took about 11 month’s total. I took it off because it was necessary. I even talked to Emmanuel Steward and he gave advice to me. You see a lot of guys and they get stopped or lose a big fight and it takes a lot out of them physically and mentally and guys comeback straight away and you can’t do that. You take that physical trauma and that’s enough as it is then you take the mental beating you give yourself for losing. You lose that opportunity and it hurts, it takes some getting used to it. I’m not going to lie I sat around most days and didn’t enjoy anything for awhile. I didn’t go outside, I didn’t see people because of how I felt, it hurt. There was so much riding on it in my mind. It takes some serious heart, it’s a rough period and you have to find something which you enjoy and that’s what I did in the time off and tried to enjoy myself best I can. Once I got back I didn’t forget the Klitschko thing because that’s something you need to remember in your mind but now I’m turning the page in my career and trying to start another run.
Anson Wainwright – Who are members of team Eddie Chambers; Who’s your manager, trainer & promoter? Also what gym do you train at?
Eddie Chambers – My manager and trainer is one person right now Robert Murray Snr and my promoter is Dan Goossen. I train at James Shuler’s Memorial gym in West Philadelphia.
Anson Wainwright – You weigh around 210 which isn’t much over the Cruiserweight limit. How tempting is it to drop down a few pounds and try to win a world title there? Especially with a possible Super 6 tournament and even a fight with fellow Philly fighter Steve Cunningham?
Eddie Chambers – Oh I would hope I never have to fight Steve. He’s a friend of mine but we both understand the sport. It was tempting (To drop down to Cruiserweight) at one time; it was more tempting when I was challenging to be Heavyweight champion of the world. I could say hey while I’m waiting I could prove how good an athlete I am by going down and fight for the Cruiserweight championship as well. That’s a little greedy but that’s a challenge, that’s the kind of thing I was trying to put out there. I thought of it at one time but I just believe going down would be like a step back, most people would expect me to do so well and dominate what if god forbid I had a tough fight or lost a fight in the Cruiserweight division their going to look at me an say he wasn’t much anyway. My stock would drop, even If it was a tough fight where they expect you to blow these guys out because your bigger faster and stronger and they say he’s not as good as we thought he was.
Anson Wainwright – You’re from Pittsburgh can you tell us about how life was growing up and how it took you into Boxing?
Eddie Chambers – Well my upbringing was tough, very tough at times. It as tough on me dealing with some kids, I was a real good kid and it made it more tough. I think what got me into it was my father, he used to fight too and he could see what was going on. He heard something’s about some of the kids and I really didn’t have the most confidence. He got a bit tired of hearing about me dealing with some guys giving me problems so he said “I’m going to create a monster” make me a tough guy or at least at that time give me some confidence. I was a little chubby kid and and some kids picked on me not physically more verbally. So he took me to the gym so I could defend myself, I didn’t honestly want to do it, It took me awhile to get me in the gym and stay in the gym. I was trying to avoid the fights at all costs. He took me in and the first day I sparred, handled the kid. I did well and I was sort of surprised but it didn’t do to much to me because I had a couple of tough sparring sessions after that and I was thinking this wasn’t something I really wanted to do, get hit in the face and head and didn’t plan it as a career for myself. So I just went out the next tournament, the Golden Gloves. I fought the first fight and I beat the kid half to death basically and I was thinking this was a fluke so in the next round I stopped the guy in the first round. So I was like wow I’ll keep going till I lose. It took me ten fights before I lost in the amateurs and I had 8 straight stoppages and that loss was just before a National tournament. I thought this is something to do and I seem pretty good at it and as I progressed I continued to get better and better and better. I went to the Olympic trials; I tried that didn’t make it. I think I was more suited to the professional game. I only had 4 years amateur, a lot of kids have there first fight at like 8 years old. I turned professional at 18 and did more of my real learning when I turned professional, once I go to that point I pretty much had everything under control and I real started to develop at that time and I learned at a good pace. That’s pretty much how it happened.
Anson Wainwright – One of the biggest fights in Boxing appears likely to take place this summer with Wladimir Klitschko unifying with David Haye. What do you think of that fight how do you see it going?
Eddie Chambers – Honestly I think David Haye has a good shot if he can land a good shot. But I think by 4, 5, 6 Wladimir will hit his groove, use his jab, line that right hand up. It will be difficult for Haye to land, Haye could land over the top and with his speed you never know. I think Wladimir’s height and reach it’ll be hard for David Haye. Towards the middle rounds Wladimir will land a couple of right hands and it’ll be over.
Anson Wainwright – Away from Boxing can you tell us a little about yourself, what are your Interests & Hobbies?
Eddie Chambers – Most of them are still sports besides video games and when I’m playing them there sports games. I love to play Basketball and I also love to bowl. I’ve been working at my bowling game and been doing pretty well with it. Just spend time with friends; I’ve just done a road trip with family and friends to visit others. These are things I like to do.
Anson Wainwright – Have you ever bowled a perfect game?
Eddie Chambers – No, I’ve bowled a clean game but never a perfect game. Honestly my highest score and some people would laugh is about 215. I’m learning still. It’s fun and a good sport. Hopefully one day I’m good enough to play in the US open, I’ll keep working on it.
Anson Wainwright – Finally do you have a message for the Heavyweight division?
Eddie Chambers – Honestly it’s not an I’m going to knock everyone out type of message, I just encourage the guys out there to give me a shot, or lets make great fights for the fans to enjoy. I think that would be the best thing to Boxing especially the Heavyweight division. If we can get that done we could really turn some heads. People mention MMA more than Boxing and it’s tough when you perform in it and not get a real fan base. I just really hope we can make the best fights out there.
Best Wishes & thanks for your time Eddie.
Anson Wainwright
Fight Camp 360 Pacquiao vs. Mosley, episode 1: Shane looks old and slow
by Chris Williams: All I can say is after watching the first episode of Fight Camp 360 Pacquiao vs. Mosley tonight is that Shane looks really old and worse than that, he looks painfully slow. Once again, Pacquiao’s management has struck gold by finding someone who isn’t at his best.
You can just look at how old Mosley looked in the episode 1 to pretty much right him off completely, but when you look at Mosley’s poor showing in his last two fights that clinches it for me. Mosley doesn’t have a chance at beating Pacquiao. He’s just too old and slow at this point to win. As far as the first episode goes it was pretty boring with just a bunch of video of Pacquiao and Mosley being shuffled around from place to place, Pacquiao posing for photos and with a lot of old fight clips mixed in.
In the case of Mosley, the fight clips were really old, dating back to his fights with Oscar De La Hoya in 2000 and 2003. I figured they would do this to try and sell the fight, because if they showed how bad Mosley had looked in his last two fights against Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Sergio Mora it would be like PPV repellent. Another thing that tipped me off was trainer Freddie Roach and promoter Bob Arum both talking about how you can’t count Mosley out and how he’s not an easy fight. Roach rarely says good things about Pacquiao’s opponents and the fact that he’s saying good things here it suggests that he’s trying to sell the fight to a skeptical public.
The episode was aired on CBS where a lot of casual boxing fans got to see it. I wonder if they will be interested enough to pay to watch this fight? Maybe if they drop the price to $15 so that boxing fans wouldn’t mind seeing a mismatch.
Morales doesn’t think Maidana hits as hard as Pacquiao
By Jason Kim: Erik Morales (51-6, 35 KO’s) is giving himself an excellent chance of beating knockout artist Marcos Maidana (29-2, 27 KO’s) on April 9th in their fight at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
One of the things that Morales is looking at to suggest that he’ll win is Maidana’s power. Morales doubts whether Maidana punches as hard as his old nemesis Pacquiao, who beat Morales in two of the three times they fought. Morales said “Do you think he [Maidana] hits harder than Pacquiao, for instance?”
Maidana may or may not hit as hard as Pacquiao with his best shot. It’s hard to tell, but the difference here is that Maidana has very heavy hands and hits hard with every punch he throws. It’s like he’s hitting you with a power punch when he’s just throwing normal shots.
He tends to wear down his opposition rather than blasting them out with one shot. Getting hit really hard over and over again is difficult for fighters to take. Maidana just ends up bludgeoning his opponents into submission over a period of rounds. Morales is going to find out that Maidana has a different kind of power compared to Pacquiao.
It might not be the same as the Filipino fighter in terms of a single shot, but he’s going to be hitting Morales a lot in this fight and it’s difficult to imagine that he’s going to be able to stand up to that kind of heavyweight punishment for 12 rounds.
Morales says “I think that his style is very good for my style…I think I can adjust very well to his style. I’ve seen him and I feel very confident that it’s the fight style for my style.”
In his prime, Morales might well have been good enough to beat Maidana if he were big enough to fight him. However, Morales has fought at lighter weights and he’s not the same fighter he once was. In his prime, he would have been asking a lot of himself to bulk up enough to beat a bigger, stronger fighter like Maidana. But now that Morales is old and looking shot, it’s even harder for him to beat him now.
Morales is fighting out of his weight class against one of the biggest punchers in the light welterweight division. And on top of that, Morales has struggled against the three mediocre opponents he’s been in with during his three fight comeback. Maidana is a lot better than the three guys that Morales has faced. This means that Morales is going to have to be a lot better than he was in those three fights if he wants to beat Morales on 4/9.
David Haye vs. Wladimir Klitschko analysis and prediction
By Daniel R: On June 25th or July 2nd, WBA heavyweight champion David Haye and IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko will finally square off in the most anticipated heavyweight fight in years. This is my analysis and prediction of the fight.
Firstly, Haye has without a doubt injected life into a dead division and is finally stepping up in class by facing Wladimir where we will be able to see just how good he is. His main attribute is his speed, coming up from cruiserweight he is the fastest and most athletic heavyweight out there. His movement and evasiveness has proven to work which was evident in the Nikolay Valuev fight where he circled the ring and used his speed to get in and out without getting hit.
I think this will cause big problems for Wladimir who has not fought anyone who is as quick on their feet and evasive as Haye is. Another attribute for Haye is his power. By making Valuev do a dance in the 12th round, flooring John Ruiz with the first right hand and completely destroying Audley Harrison, his power cannot be denied and all of these fighters had better chins than Wladimir. However, Haye’s level of opposition is clearly not great, with only four fights at heavyweight against B class fighters in Valuev and Ruiz and C class fighters in Harrison and Barrett.
Haye cannot criticize either of the Klitschko’s of fighting nobodies, and Wladimir is a major step up from recent opposition. Lastly, Haye’s punch resistance is a big question, having been knocked down at cruiserweight and hurt in the Barrett fight it is clear he lacks good punch resistance and if he is getting dropped by cruiserweights you can’t help but wonder what happens when Wladimir lands a solid right hand or left hook.
Secondly, Wladimir Klitschko, a very safe fighter however has one of the best jabs in boxing and immense power. In his most recent fight destroying Samuel Peter, Wladimir’s jab-jab-jab and right hand have proven to be a deadly combination. I believe Wladimir is the hardest hitter in boxing and with impressive knockout wins over Eddie Chambers and Peter this is evident.
Considering he’s a 6ft 6 240lbs guy his speed is also impressive, not to the level of Haye’s speed but he is still the fastest heavyweight Haye has faced and I think Haye underestimates Wladimir’s speed and with his hands held at his waist this could cause Haye problems. But despite all this like Haye Wladimir doesn’t have the greatest chin being knocked out three times most notably by Corrie Sanders and Chris Byrd who were both fast which makes this fight even more interesting.
After considering all of this, the outcome of the fight depends on who lands the first meaningful punch and my prediction is a knockout win for Haye in the 3rd or 4th round. I think Hayes speed will be the determining factor, I see Haye using quick movement to avoid the Klitschko jab leaving Wladimir puzzled as he has never fought anyone like this before and I see Haye getting in and out landing hard combinations to the chin of Wladimir eventually knocking him out. However, this is a fight with two of the hardest hitters in boxing and I would not be surprised at all to see Haye crumble after getting hit with the first meaningful punch from Wladimir.
This is my first post guys, so take it easy on me……
Firstly, Haye has without a doubt injected life into a dead division and is finally stepping up in class by facing Wladimir where we will be able to see just how good he is. His main attribute is his speed, coming up from cruiserweight he is the fastest and most athletic heavyweight out there. His movement and evasiveness has proven to work which was evident in the Nikolay Valuev fight where he circled the ring and used his speed to get in and out without getting hit.
I think this will cause big problems for Wladimir who has not fought anyone who is as quick on their feet and evasive as Haye is. Another attribute for Haye is his power. By making Valuev do a dance in the 12th round, flooring John Ruiz with the first right hand and completely destroying Audley Harrison, his power cannot be denied and all of these fighters had better chins than Wladimir. However, Haye’s level of opposition is clearly not great, with only four fights at heavyweight against B class fighters in Valuev and Ruiz and C class fighters in Harrison and Barrett.
Haye cannot criticize either of the Klitschko’s of fighting nobodies, and Wladimir is a major step up from recent opposition. Lastly, Haye’s punch resistance is a big question, having been knocked down at cruiserweight and hurt in the Barrett fight it is clear he lacks good punch resistance and if he is getting dropped by cruiserweights you can’t help but wonder what happens when Wladimir lands a solid right hand or left hook.
Secondly, Wladimir Klitschko, a very safe fighter however has one of the best jabs in boxing and immense power. In his most recent fight destroying Samuel Peter, Wladimir’s jab-jab-jab and right hand have proven to be a deadly combination. I believe Wladimir is the hardest hitter in boxing and with impressive knockout wins over Eddie Chambers and Peter this is evident.
Considering he’s a 6ft 6 240lbs guy his speed is also impressive, not to the level of Haye’s speed but he is still the fastest heavyweight Haye has faced and I think Haye underestimates Wladimir’s speed and with his hands held at his waist this could cause Haye problems. But despite all this like Haye Wladimir doesn’t have the greatest chin being knocked out three times most notably by Corrie Sanders and Chris Byrd who were both fast which makes this fight even more interesting.
After considering all of this, the outcome of the fight depends on who lands the first meaningful punch and my prediction is a knockout win for Haye in the 3rd or 4th round. I think Hayes speed will be the determining factor, I see Haye using quick movement to avoid the Klitschko jab leaving Wladimir puzzled as he has never fought anyone like this before and I see Haye getting in and out landing hard combinations to the chin of Wladimir eventually knocking him out. However, this is a fight with two of the hardest hitters in boxing and I would not be surprised at all to see Haye crumble after getting hit with the first meaningful punch from Wladimir.
This is my first post guys, so take it easy on me……
More on Huck, Helinius wins
WBO Cruiserweight Champion Marco “Captain” Huck (32-1, 23 KOs) made his sixth successful title defence on Saturday night in Halle, Germany when he defeated brave challenger Ran Nakash on points. Fighting in front of 5,300 fans at the Gerry Weber Stadion, Huck was ahead 118-110, 118-110 and 116-112 after twelve hard-fought rounds. An aggressive Nakash moved forward from the first bell on, with Huck trying to get off his powerful combinations. From the fifth round onwards, Huck stamped his authority on the fight, landing hard uppercuts that bruised the face of his opponent. The crowd roared every time Huck launched one of his trademark assaults, but Nakash remained active and refused to go down. “He was a very dangerous opponent and I had to be on alert until the very end,” Huck said. “My uppercuts did the damage tonight. It was great to be in the ring in front of my home fans and give them an exciting fight.”
Huck handed Nakash (25-1, 18 KOs) the first loss of his career. “Huck is a strong guy, but I came here to win the title, so I am very disappointed,” he stated. Coach Ulli Wegner lauded both man for putting on “a Teutonic battle” in which “Huck held the upper hand.”
In the co-featured main event, Robert Helenius clinched his 15th victory in as many fights (15-0, 10 KOs), claiming the scalp of former world champion Sam Peter (34-5, 27 KOs). The “Nordic Nightmare” knocked his opponent down in the ninth with a huge left to the head. Peter got back up but went down again when Helenius connected with another huge left hook for the referee to wave the bout off. “I was convinced I would beat him,” Helenius said. “I needed some time to get going but then I found my rhythm. Peter was a tough opponent. This is a very big win for me.” Said Peter: “He hit me with two big shots that I did not see coming. He has a great future ahead.”
Huck handed Nakash (25-1, 18 KOs) the first loss of his career. “Huck is a strong guy, but I came here to win the title, so I am very disappointed,” he stated. Coach Ulli Wegner lauded both man for putting on “a Teutonic battle” in which “Huck held the upper hand.”
In the co-featured main event, Robert Helenius clinched his 15th victory in as many fights (15-0, 10 KOs), claiming the scalp of former world champion Sam Peter (34-5, 27 KOs). The “Nordic Nightmare” knocked his opponent down in the ninth with a huge left to the head. Peter got back up but went down again when Helenius connected with another huge left hook for the referee to wave the bout off. “I was convinced I would beat him,” Helenius said. “I needed some time to get going but then I found my rhythm. Peter was a tough opponent. This is a very big win for me.” Said Peter: “He hit me with two big shots that I did not see coming. He has a great future ahead.”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)