Adamek Edges Injured Chambers in Newark Saturday By Ken Hissner, Doghouse Boxing (June 18, 2012) Doghouse Boxing - Tweet
The Prudential Center in Newark, NJ,
was rocking as usual when their favorite Tomasz “Goral” Adamek,
46-2 (28), of Gilowice, POL, now out of Newark entered the ring. On
this Saturday night the fans were in a somewhat disappointing mood
since their National team of POL lost to CZ earlier in the day in
what the Americans call soccer. His opponent was former No. 1
contender “Fast” Eddie Chambers, 37-3 (18), out of Philadelphia
who was dropped from the ratings due to 14 months of inactivity.
The fans had watched 6 previous fights
and were now waiting for the main event on NBC Sports Network
promoted by Main Events, Peltz Boxing and Zigg Promotions along with
GTP. Chambers started out doing a lot of feinting and using his
speed to offset the strength of the former world champion Adamek.
Chambers was only a couple of pounds over the cruiserweight limit in
a division that Adamek held the IBF title. He had over 20 pounds on
Chambers this night.
Near the end of the first round it was
noticeable that Chambers pointed to what seemed his left wrist as to
say “what time is it?” Before the round ended Chambers switched
to using the right jab even though out of an orthodox stance.
Between rounds he complained of an injury to his left bicep. He
would have to go the rest of the way not able to use his left arm.
For some reason the Adamek camp and he himself didn’t ever seem to
take advantage of this, which gives a lot of credit to Chambers.
Ad the end of the sixth round Chambers
seemed to have a 4-2 edge per this writer. Adamek was doing the
chasing and though fast for a cruiser or heavyweight he could not
match the hand speed of the right hand of Chambers. Adamek seemed to
take three of the last 4 rounds hoping for a knockout. It seemed the
first half of the fight was as close as the second half in this 12
round IBF North American heavyweight title bout.
In this kind of environment would the
judges see Chambers take an upset win? Those at press row who were
polled seemed to have Chambers ahead by a couple of rounds. Due to
the controversy of the Pacquaio-Bradley fight the NJ commissioner
Aaron Davis promised to have his best judges and referee’s on hand.
In Benjy Esteves, Jr. he had that in his referee. Ring Annoucer Joe
Antonucci read off the scores of Steve Weisfeld and Joe Pasquale as
116-112. The other judge Alan Rubenstein had it 119-109 only giving
the loser Chambers one round. This writer had it 115-113 for
Chambers. Granted the judges were in a much better position to view
the fight that I did in either looking at the giant screen overhead
or from the fifth press row seat back but Chambers deserved more
credit than given by the all 3 judges. Of course, the fans loved the
decision going to Adamek.
Philadelphia’s USBA heavyweight
champion Bryant “By-By” Jennings, 14-0 (6), seems to get better
with each outing. He dominated Houston’s Steve “Freight Train”
Collins, 25-2 (18), over 10 rounds by scores of 100-89 by judges
Lynne Carter, Steve McNair and Kason Cheeks. In the fourth round
Jennings landed an uppercut that started Collins going backwards
followed up by a flurry that drove him into the ropes or otherwise he
would have hit the canvas. Referee Lindsay Page wisely called it a
knockdown and gave Collins a standing count.
Jennings would widen his left hook as
the fight progressed hoping to get more power hoping to stop Collins.
The Houston fighter was always trying but didn’t have the
firepower of Jennings. His trainer Fred Jenkins has done a fine job
in bringing him along.
In between the heavyweight bouts was a
junior middleweight match that had Philadelphia’s Jamaal “Da
Truth” Davis, 14-8-1 (6), giving one of his better performances
over Doel Carrasquillo, 16-20-1 (14), of Lancaster, PA, who has heavy
hands but slow feet. Davis kept one-step ahead of the plodding
Carrasquillo and even when he would face him he had too much hand
speed for Carrasquillo to land his power punches. Eugenia Williams
had it 79-73 while Pasquale and John Stewart 78-74. The referee was
Earl Brown.
John Thompson, 8-0 (2), of Newark, NJ,
won his biggest fight to date in defeating southpaw John Mackey,
13-7-3 (6), of Washington, DC, over 6 rounds in a junior middleweight
match. Mackey had his moments but Thompson continues to impress
winning by scores of 59-55 and 58-56. The referee was Eddie Cotton.
Dominican Jose “Mangu” Peralta, 9-1
(5), of Jersey City looked like Miguel Cotto out there dominating
Dontre King, 6-11-2 (2), of Cambridge, MD, stopping him at 2:28 of
the fourth round. Body shots by Peralta crushed King. “I want a
big fight to help support my family. I hurt my hand in my last
fight,” said Peralta. He is one to watch. Cotton was the referee.
Patrick Farrell, 7-1-1 (3), of Jersey
City, NJ, and David Williams, 6-6-1 (2) put on the fight of the night
in a 4 round heavyweight brawl. Farrell had Williams hurt in the
first round only to get rocked himself before the round was over.
Farrell seemed to take the next 2 rounds dropping Williams in the
second before again in the fourth both fighters rocked one another.
Brown was the referee. Scores of 40-35 twice and 40-36 went to
Farrell deservingly so.
In the show opener Tureano Johnson, 9-0
(6), of Nassau, BAH, won a closely contested fight by scores of 58-56
over Roberto Yong, 5-5-1 (4), of Sacramento, CA, in a 4 round
middleweight match. They could have fought this one in a phone
booth. Both fighters were throwing from the opening bell. Brown was
the referee and Johnson a sure winner.
Matchmaker J. Russell Peltz put together
this show and has his heavyweight Jennings on the road of contention
among the top contenders. Adamek and Chambers could do it again but
Adamek will be back in the fall filling the Prudential Center again
as the facilities favorite.
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