Eddie Chambers came out the victor via majority decision (99-91, 96-94, 95-95) at Los Angeles' Nokia Theater against former WBC heavyweight titlist Samuel Peter last night, putting Chambers into serious contention and putting a huge dent into the career of Peter.
Chambers (34-1, 18 KO) outlanded Peter every round, though Peter outworked him. It was your typical dull heavyweight fight; not truly awful, but just completely forgettable and yet another reminder that the division is just plain crap to watch. Chambers might well be America's best heavyweight, but he's never going to excite anyone.
As for Peter (30-3, 23 KO), this about does it for his marketability. He hasn't done anything of real note since the loss to Wladimir Klitschko, which is undoubtedly the shining moment of his career as far as performances go, and he lost that fight. Since losing competitively to Wladimir, he's beaten paper champ Maskaev, gotten roughed up by Jamee McCline, beaten a fat middleweight twice, and been hammered by Vitali Klitschko. Now this. Any hope that anyone had about Peter being the exciting, power punching heavy that could turn the division upside down is now dead. And he has no one to blame but himself for this loss. Chambers was hardly exceptional. Peter being grossly out of shape killed him. He clearly didn't think enough of this bout to train very hard, and his arrogance caught up to him. Good for Eddie Chambers, frankly.
Three years from now, this fight will be completely forgotten. Either Klitschko beats Chambers handily unless Vitali's back locks up on him, which says a lot about what chances Alexander Povetkin has, I think. Povetkin is thought to be one of the jewels of the current "younger" crop of heavies, but Chambers should have beaten them when they fought, I felt.
Outside of David Haye maybe going bananas, there's just nothing close on the horizon to a dynamic, exciting heavyweight pug. Forget about it.