The Quick and the Dead

I once asked Larry Holmes who hit him the hardest of all the fighters he faced in his career. He thought about it for a second. The first name he came out with was Mike Weaver. Then he brought up Joe Frazier, who he'd sparred with in his early days. "He broke my ribs once in a sparring session," he said. "He didn't know nothing about taking it easy. Every time he hit you it was like he was trying to kill you."

When I asked him what Ali's power felt like, he talked for a while about sparring with The Greatest before the Rumble. "It was strange with Muhammad," he said. "When I first got in the ring with him I was all nervous and shit, and then he stuck a couple of jabs in my face and I thought, "okay, I can handle this," and then the right hands start coming and I'm still like, "yeah, yeah, I'm still here," but then, you know, after three rounds of that shit my face is all fucked up and I'm bleeding from some cuts and I catch a look at myself in a mirror and I'm all swollen and I'm thinking, "when the fuck did THAT happen?"

I thought about that story last night while I was watching the Calvin Brock/Eddie Chambers fight, which Chambers won in a narrow split decision that was to my eyes not nearly as close as the judges saw it. Some guys, even when they don't have knockout power, just seem to have a way of slicing you up, and Chambers certainly did that to Brock last night. He fought a maddening fight at times, and yet I think that you only need to take one look at Brock's horrifying knockout of Zuri Lawrence in 2006 for a clue as to what motivated Chambers' cagey approach. Whatever Brock's many faults in the ring, one thing is certain - he can fell a hippopotamus with one clean shot. Despite the fact that he was on Showtime last night, with a shot at the big money lying in the balance, I think Fast Eddie was content to be fast and loose rather than great against a man who can bring such thunder.

Not that Brock was looking too thunderous on the whole. Sheesh. Man looked like he ate the damn bank. I think we can bid farewell to Calvin once and for all after that one. As for Eddie's hopes against Alexander Povetkin, I think they are good. He'll be an underdog, but it should be an entertaining, bull/matador-ish affair. Povetkin is ultimately a much more exciting opponent for Klitschko than Chambers - there's no doubt about that. Last night's display did nothing to make me think that Eddie has a chance against Wlad the (One-Two) Impaler. Just the idea of the 6'6", 245 Klitschko going after the 6'1", 210 Chambers conjures the image of a glorified fox-hunt rather than a heavyweight title fight. If it ever comes off, they should put Pavlik/Pacquiao on the undercard. Maybe if Eddie were a little more seasoned, I would rate his chances higher, but on that score, I have to confess that I found myself wondering last night what would happen if Chambers fought Chris Byrd right now. Honestly, I'm not sure he would win that fight. In other words, Fast Eddie, if you do make it into the ring against the Klitsch, you might want to think about getting a HELL of a lot faster.