By Jake Donovan

Heavyweight contender Eddie Chambers has spent the last 14 months making up for lost time. He stumbled upon an important piece to that puzzle on Friday night, scoring the biggest win of his career just two days shy of his 27th birthday with a well-deserved majority decision over former heavyweight titlist Samuel Peter.

The bout served as the main event of ESPN2’s Friday Night Fights, also headlining the first ever boxing card at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, California.

Skepticism of either fighter’s effectiveness surrounded the evening’s main event, with both showing up grossly out of shape. Peter came in at a career heaviest 265 lb, while Chambers’ jiggly 223 lb. frame was just one pound shy of the most he’s ever weighed as a prize fighter.

By the end of the night, Chambers proved you don’t need to be body beautiful to be in fighting shape, while Peter bore the look of a fighter who looked much older than should be the case for a 28-year old heavyweight with just 33 fights to his name.

The tone was set early for how the rest of the fight would play out. Peter plodded forward, working behind his jab to set up a right behind it. Chambers remained on the outside, bouncing on his toes and circling to his left, while repeatedly sticking his jab in Peter’s face.

It was more of the same for most of the second round, until Chambers decided to change direction, no longer moving as much as he began circling to his right. The odd switch allowed Peter to begin dialing in his right hand, considerably outworking the Philly-based stylist over the final minute of the round.

Chambers went back to basics in the third, moving left and scoring with his jab. Peter managed to cut off the ring and corner his foe early in the round, but failed to land a single punch during the sequence.

Peter is rightfully regarded as the much bigger puncher of the two, but it was Chambers who landed the best shot of the round, a flush right hand without about minute to go in the round. His counter-punching skills were also on display, repeatedly picking off Peter, who kept lumbering forward but unable to get off his punches.

Things remained status quo for much of the fourth. Chambers offered a rare power surge, targeting the body in stretches and landing consecutive right hands late in the round. Where Chambers was lacking was on the follow-up, which allowed Peter to come back and fire right hand counters. Peter tried to carry the momentum over into the fifth, but expended a lot of energy in doing so. His mouth was agape as the fight crept toward the halfway point, while Chambers still looked the same as he did at the opening bell.

Little in the way of notable action was offered in the sixth. The more telling story was Chambers’ brimming confidence, dancing on his toes while willingly staring down the barrel of the shotgun. What he knew was that Peter was too exhausted to pull the trigger, breathing heavily and doing a whole lot of missing for much of the night.

As he began piling up rounds, Chambers grew braver on offense and defense. The amount of space between the two closed considerably in the seventh, but Peter couldn’t do anything about it. Chambers continued to pump the jab, throwing up his hands quick enough to block nearly all of the incoming, then coming back with rapid-fire right hands upstairs.

The end of the seventh round was perhaps the most telling scene of the fight. Chambers was as calm as can be in one corner, while Peter was sucking air and too tired to even immediately sit on his stool, standing in his corner for more than 30 seconds. In between deep gasps, he was told by his corner that he desperately needed to take the last three rounds in order to win the fight.

Peter didn’t quite respond, but almost didn’t have to. Chambers’ tremendous flaw of not letting his hands go was most evident in the eighth round, spending way too much time playing defense at a point when Peter appeared to be at his most vulnerable.

The lazy approach didn’t sit well with Chambers’ corner, who insisted that Peter was ready to quit and that they needed much more from their charge. Unlike Peter one round prior, Chambers obliged, enjoying perhaps his best round of the fight on the strength of a healthy mix of jabs and right hands.

Both fighters finally woke up in the tenth and final round, perhaps spending all night saving up for a big finish. Peter threw in combinations, but was countered by Chambers’ jab nearly every time he threatened to gain momentum. Chambers’ quicker hands controlled the action down the stretch, cruising to the final bell and what appeared to be a clear-cut victory.

The judges obviously disagreed. Either that, or they just wanted to make things more interesting than the ten rounds of heavyweight boxing that preceded it.

Ring announcer Jimmy Lennon Jr. was forced to reveal with a straight face that the bout was scored a majority decision. Judge Max DeLuca was apparently impressed with Peter’s largely ineffective aggression, scoring the bout 95-95.  Scores of 96-94 and 99-91 by Marty Denkin and Ray Collona, respectively, didn’t exactly suggest that they both watched the same fight, though at least had the right guy winning in the end, with Chambers taking a majority decision.

The win makes it four straight for Chambers, who improves to 34-1 (18KO) with the win. His lone loss came 14 months ago, falling apart down the stretch in an HBO-televised bout against Alexander Povetkin. While tonight’s fight wasn’t an elimination bout, Chambers is now exactly where he was prior to the Povetkin fight, which is one fight away from challenging for a major title.

Peter’s career tumbles in the opposite direction. It’s the second straight loss for the former titlist, who falls to 30-3 (23KO). He entered this fight on the heels of a one-sided ass-whipping at the hands of Vitali Klitschko, quitting on his stool after eight rounds.

While he went the distance tonight, his showing up at a career high 265 lb. clearly indicated that he quit taking his career as seriously as was the case when he was a highly touted prospect and contender earlier in the decade.

Chambers is in a much better place, but has a way to go in the conditioning and activity department, if he wants fans to stand up and take notice. What he had to offer tonight was enough to get the job done, but won’t always be the case even in today’s abysmal state of the heavyweight division.

By his own admission, there’s more work to be done, which can be viewed two ways.

On one hand, it’s troublesome that the same flaws committed tonight also directly resulted in the lone loss of his career. But on the positive side, if he was able to score his biggest win while arguably in the worst condition of his career, just imagine how he’d look when firing on all cylinders.

UNDERCARD

Promising junior lightweight prospect John Molina made the most of his second straight televised showcase, overcoming a rocky start to stop Carlos Vinan in the second round of their scheduled eight-round co-feature.

Vinan (8-7-3, 1KO) began the fight with upset clearly on his mind, offering a non-stop barrage of punches in the opening round. Molina had a hard time keeping up, but was able to maintain his composure and start anew in the second round. It made all of the difference in the world as Vinan found himself under siege, taking major punishment before being rescued by referee David Mendoza.

The official time was 2:40 of the second round.

Molina improves to 16-0 (12KO) with the win, already his second of 2009. The knockout comes on the heels of a Shobox appearance just seven weeks ago, scoring a third round knockout of Joshua Allotey.

Speaking of knockouts, Shawn Estrada maintains his 100% KO to win ratio, tearing through Oakland-based journeyman Ray Craig in the opening bout of the telecast. The former 2008 Olympian needed just 101 seconds to take care of business, dropping Craig three times en route to a first round stoppage.

The win moves Estrada’s record to 3-0 (3KO). He has yet to see round two of a fight, with his three pro fights to date lasting a total of just over three combined minutes. With quick work comes quick turnarounds; Estrada returns to the ring in two weeks, where he will appear on the non-televised undercard portion of the April 11 HBO show in Las Vegas.

Craig’s record evens up at 5-5 (2KO), suffering his fourth straight loss.

Joining Estrada on the show was his 2008 Olympic teammate Javier Molina, who made his pro debut in a televised swing bout. The 19-year old didn’t stick around very long, dusting off fellow pro debuter Jaime Cabrera in the second round of their scheduled four round tilt. Body shots were the difference, leading to two knockdowns before forcing the stoppage at 1:50 of the second round.

The show was presented by Goossen-Tutor Promotions and Duva Boxing.

Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of Boxingscene.com and a voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Please feel free to contact Jake at JakeNDaBox@gmail.com .