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This past Friday night undefeated heavyweight “Fast” Eddie Chambers was pitted against Dominick “The Southern Disaster” Guinn, headlining “The Next Great Heavyweight Contender”, presented by Goossen-Tutor Promotions and aired on Showtime from the Pearl at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas.
Chambers, a somewhat undersized heavyweight by today’s standard at 6’1″ and 214 pounds, relies primarily on his speed and boxing skill. He is the current USBA heavyweight champion, ranked #13 by the WBO and #12 by the IBF, and considered by many to be one of the top prospects in the heavyweight division.
Guinn, after struggling over the last few years by going 4-4-1 in his last nine contests, is trying to work his way back into heavyweight contention.
Round one opens with both fighters feeling each other out in the center of the ring. On the whole, Guinn is setting the pace of the fight, but most punches by both fighters are being blocked as they are both keeping their hands and guard up. The round ends with few decisive exchanges.
The first half of round two sees Guinn again setting the pace, appearing to be the stronger fighter landing the harder shots. As the round continues, however, Chambers becomes more active and is able to land some clean blows through Guinn’s gloves. Exchanges in this round are limited as well. In the end, it is a very close round and difficult to score.
Chambers opens round three by working his jab and forcing the action. This is the first time in the fight that Chambers appears to be the aggressor. Guinn fights back, but many of his punches are being blocked by Chambers. Both fighters stay busy, but throughout the round it is Chambers throwing and landing the cleaner more accurate punches.
Round four begins much as in round three, with Chambers launching punches in the middle of the ring. This round settles into a back and forth pattern, with Chambers leading and connecting with an occasional jab or two punch combination, and Guinn working Chambers’ body with more consistency.
In round five, Guinn starts the round aggressively and stays on the attack most of the way through. While clean effective shots are difficult for him to come by against Chambers, Guinn stays busy and does consistently land the more telling blows of the round.
Round six sees Chambers again working his jab and various combinations in the middle of the ring. In this round, his speed advantage over Guinn seems to be more pronounced as he is able to catch Guinn with some very solid punches. In the middle of the round he begins double left hook combinations, head and body, which score effectively. Chambers stays aggressive throughout and appears to take the round easily.
Guinn, while appearing to tire and slow, still uses his size and strength to dominate the early part of round seven. Chambers responds by increasing his activity in the second half of the round. When busy, as throughout much of the fight, he consistently lands the cleaner punches.
In a contest in which power is unlikely to end it, Chambers’ ability to consistently land the more accurate and effective punches seems to be the biggest deciding factor in a relatively close fight.
Chambers begins round eight working his jab and staying busy. While Guinn is able to put together an occasional combination, and still appears to have a strength advantage over Chambers, his difficulty in consistently landing clean blows through Chambers’ defense, as well as matching Chambers’ overall level of activity, appear to be costing him.
Early in round nine, the fight sees one of the best exchanges of the night. Beginning with a body shot by Guinn, Chambers responds with a combination of his own, followed with another combination from Guinn which seems to stagger Chambers slightly. It’s one of the only times of the night that either fighter exhibited even a hint of convincing power, and it is quite fleeting.
Over the second half of the round, which has become a very familiar pattern as the fight has progressed, Chambers is again the busier fighter landing the cleaner more effective punches.
Guinn opens the tenth and final round aggressively, but his activity slows as the round progresses. Chambers, doing his most effective work in this round countering off of Guinn’s aggression, finishes the second half of the frame strong.
With scores that probably don’t indicate how closely matched these two appeared to be, Eddie Chambers wins by unanimous decision with scores of 100-90 and 97-93 (twice).
Eddie Chambers improves to 29-0 (16), while Dominick Guinn drops to 28-5-1 (19).
In the main bout on the undercard, and in what was easily the most exciting and crowd pleasing match up of the night, Chris “The Nightmare” Arreola faced Malcolm “The Showstopper” Tann, scheduled for eight rounds. Tann took this bout on short notice after Arreola’s original opponent, Devin Vargas suffered a recent sparring injury.
For both fighters, this marked a noteworthy step up in competition. While Arreola, in particular, has been gaining recognition as a heavyweight on the rise, he is now at a point in which the level of his opponents will be instrumental in determining how far he can go.
Tann, being a big and strong heavyweight, a former Golden Gloves champion at super heavyweight, and having never been stopped in 25 professional fights, was prepared to put Arreola’s skill and reputation as a puncher to the test.
Round one opens as expected. Arreola goes on the offensive, walking down Tann and putting constant pressure on him. It becomes obvious very in early in the round that if Tann is unable to back up Arreola at some point, he will be on the defensive the entire night. Arreola dominates the round with his constant pressure.
Round two continues with Arreola moving forward and mixing his attack between the head and body. Tann seems more determined to stand his ground in this round, but still finds himself moving backwards in the face of Arreola’s pressure.
Arreola connects with a left hook about midway through the round, then connects with a solid right in he last minute. Both of these seem to stun Tann. While Arreola is dominating the action, these shots are the first real indication that Arreola’s power may be able to get to Tann. The round ends with Tann trying to respond and both fighters exchanging blows.
Tann opens the third round much more aggressively, and as a result, most of the early action takes place in the center of the ring. About a minute in, however, Arreola connects with a combination that stuns Tann and puts him back on the defensive. For the remainder of the round, Arreola continuously lands the cleaner and stronger punches. At this point in the bout, Arreola is clearly dominating and in charge of the action.
Perhaps out of desperation, Tann spends much of round four openly exchanging with Arreola. While landing clean blows, however, he is never able to noticeably hurt Arreola or stop his attack. While action slows during much of the round, Arreola closes with a strong flurry, connecting on several hard shots with Tann against the ropes.
Round five opens where round four ended, with Arreola on the attack and landing solid shots. He backs Tann up against the ropes early in the round and continues attacking, landing several hard blows in the process.
As the round continues, Tann seems tired and beaten. Arreola dishes out the worst punishment of the fight so far. The only thing that seems to remain in doubt is if Tann will make it the full eight rounds.
Round six sees most of the action in the center of the ring. Arreola’s attack is focused more on the body while Tann seems more interested in keeping his distance than fighting. Late in the round, however, Arreola takes his attack upstairs and connects with good combinations that hurt Tann.
In round seven, Arreola, always the aggressor, still presses the attack. About half way through, Arreola connects cleanly and hurts Tann, but is unable to land the decisive blow to end the bout.
Arreola comes out aggressive in round eight and connects with some clean blows early. Tann, while on shaky legs, seems determined to go the distance. About a minute into the round, Arreola connects with a big right to the head of Tann which forces him backwards across the ring.
Once Arreola closes on Tann against the ropes, he connects again, and this time Tann is not up to the challenge, eventually collapsing through the ropes as Arreola keeps throwing punches and the crowd cheers wildly.
The knockout comes at 1 minute 7 seconds of the eighth round.
Time will tell what kind of contender Arreola will be, but one thing is certain, his aggressive style, determined attitude and dangerous power will make a crowd favorite wherever he goes.
Chris Arreola improves to 20-0 (18), while Malcolm Tann drops to 23-3 (12).
In other undercard bouts, heavyweight Malik Scott improves to 28-0 (10) by out pointing Charles Shufford, who drops to 20-7-1 (9), by unanimous decision with scores of 100-90 and 99-91 (twice).
Welterweight Francisco Santana improves to 6-0 (3) in a unanimous decision with identical scores of 40-35 on all three cards. Lester Balmores falls to 2-6-1 (1).
