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By Jake Donovan - If this is what they look like on fight night, how grossly out of shape were they before entering training camp?
This seems to be the question on the mind of many a boxing fan when watching what qualifies as a top heavyweight in action today. It can be a four-round newcomer or an established veteran toting alphabet hardware. The common thread among boxing’s big boys is the expanding waist lines that seem to accompany them into the ring, no matter the stakes.
The latest example will be on display tonight, during the main event on ESPN2’s Friday Night Fights. Perhaps by night’s end, Eddie Chambers and Samuel Peter give fans something positive to talk about in the way of memorable heavyweight action.
But until the final or even the opening bell, the storyline is the battle of the bulge.
Thursday’s weigh-in, which Goossen-Tutor Promotions (who handles Chambers) proudly touted all week was open to the public, saw Peter step on the scale at a career fattest 265 lb. Chambers wasn’t in any better shape, with his announced weight of 223 lb qualifying for the second heaviest tally of his eight-plus year career.
The fight has been sold as one with major heavyweight implications. Yet this is the conditioning both fighters choose to exhibit in what could essentially become a loser-leaves-town match for the one whose arm isn’t raised by night’s end. [details]
This seems to be the question on the mind of many a boxing fan when watching what qualifies as a top heavyweight in action today. It can be a four-round newcomer or an established veteran toting alphabet hardware. The common thread among boxing’s big boys is the expanding waist lines that seem to accompany them into the ring, no matter the stakes.
The latest example will be on display tonight, during the main event on ESPN2’s Friday Night Fights. Perhaps by night’s end, Eddie Chambers and Samuel Peter give fans something positive to talk about in the way of memorable heavyweight action.
But until the final or even the opening bell, the storyline is the battle of the bulge.
Thursday’s weigh-in, which Goossen-Tutor Promotions (who handles Chambers) proudly touted all week was open to the public, saw Peter step on the scale at a career fattest 265 lb. Chambers wasn’t in any better shape, with his announced weight of 223 lb qualifying for the second heaviest tally of his eight-plus year career.
The fight has been sold as one with major heavyweight implications. Yet this is the conditioning both fighters choose to exhibit in what could essentially become a loser-leaves-town match for the one whose arm isn’t raised by night’s end. [details]
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