By Mark Vester
It was called the heavyweight “Battle for the Ages” but the fight did not live up to that billing. “Fast” Eddie Chambers (30-0, 16KOs) won a twelve-round split-decision over Calvin “The Boxing Banker” Brock (31-2, 23KOs) at the Emerald Queen Casino in Tacoma, Wash.
While the judges had the fight close, Chambers had very few problems with the more experienced Brock, unleashing a slow beating over the twelve round contest. After a close fight in the early rounds, Chambers began to pull away at the mid-point. The jabs and hooks of Chambers did plenty of damage to face of Brock, swelling both of his eyes by the seventh round.
Brock appeared to be in survival mode for the second half of the fight, circling and moving away while Chambers calmly walked him down and pushed him back with jab, followed by hard rights.
In the ninth round, Brock seemed to have an empty gas tank, making Chambers chase him around the ring. Brock tried to go for broke in the eleventh round by letting his hands go, but Chambers answered right back to stun Brock in the final seconds. In the final round, Brock went back to survival mode and made to the final bell as Chambers was trying to close the show with a knockout.
The scores were 115-113 for Chambers, a mind-boggling 115-113 for Brock and 115-113 for Chambers.
The fight was part of the IBF tournament to name a number-one contender. Chambers moves on to face Alexander Povetkin (14-0, 11KOs) in the tournament final. Povetkin, last Saturday night, stopped former heavyweight champion Chris Byrd (40-4-1, 21KOs) in the eleventh round of his IBF eliminator in Erfurt, Germany. The winner of Povetkin-Chambers will move on to fight IBF heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko.
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