By Chris Williams: IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (53-3, 47 KO’s) will be making a decision soon as to which of his two heavyweight titles he’ll be defending next in his upcoming fight later on this year. Klitschko, 33, isn’t tipping his hand as to which fighter it will be – either Eddie Chambers or Alexander Povetkin – and is saying that he’ll make his decision sometime this month or in September.
However, the word is that Wladimir will be selecting Chambers, 27, as his next opponent rather than the 2004 Olympic Gold Medalist Povetkin. It’s hard not to see why, because Chambers is coming off of two impressive wins over Samuel Peter and Alexander Dimitrenko in his last two fights.
Although Klitschko wouldn’t be hurting himself by selecting Povetkin, it would probably be smarter to take on Chambers right now because he’s accomplished a lot as of recent times and made a name for himself in the U.S. with his victories over Peter and Dimitrenko. Never mind the lone loss that Chambers, a 12 round decision defeat, suffered at the hands of Povetkin last year in the IBF elimination tourney.
Chambers has improved a lot since then and has dropped 10 pounds of weight from his once pudgy frame. Now fighting at around 210, Chambers is much quicker, and better stamina than he had in his loss to Povetkin. The lack of stamina was a problem for Chambers in that fight as he wore out after only the 4th round against Povetkin. Going into his fight with Dimitrenko in July, there were more than a few people that figured that Chambers would be beaten by the much larger 6’7″ 250 pound Dimitrenko because of the Ukrainian’s size advantage.
Chambers gave up 45 pounds in weight and six inches in height to Dimitrenko, but was still able to dominate the bigger fighter for most of the fight using his fast hands to land combinations on the inside. Chambers negated Dimitrenko’s reach advantage by staying close to him and forcing him to fight on the inside where Dimitrenko proved to be vulnerable.
With Chambers putting a lot of pressure on Dimitrenko on the inside and forcing him to work much harder than he wanted to, Dimitrenko quickly wore down by the second half of the fight and ended up getting knocked down in the 10th and stunned in the 12th round as Chambers unloaded on him with powerful uppercuts and hooks to the head. This is likely the strategy that Chambers will be using against the 6’6” Wladimir Klitschko in when/if they fight next.
However, I’m not sure if it will work nearly as good as it did for Chambers in his fight with Dimitrenko. First of all, Klitschko won’t back up against the ropes like Dimitrenko did and just cover up. Wladimir never fights off the ropes to begin with, and it’s unlikely that he’ll elect to do use this tactic against Chambers after seeing how badly Dimitrenko did when doing this.
So if Chambers is to beat Klitschko, he’ll have to be able to do it in the center of the ring rather than against the ropes. Chambers showed a lot of good head movement against Dimitrenko which allowed him to get out of the way of the Ukrainian’s jabs and right hand shots. However, Dimitrenko’s punch output and his accuracy aren’t in the same league as Klitschko’s, and it won’t be easy for Chambers to dodge a few shots and then start his attack.
Wladimir won’t let up on his jab if he misses some of the shots and will likely keep pouring them in on Chambers until he does connect. Dimitrenko may have a fighting style similar to Klitschko, but he’s a much weaker version without the power, jab or stamina that Wladimir has.
No doubt, Chamber’s will be trying to apply a lot of pressure against Wladimir to see if he crumbles like he did in his fights with Ross Purity and Lamon Brewster. But Chambers isn’t a good pressure fighter like those two, and doesn’t have the power to worry Klitschko like Purity and Brewster did.
The pressure may end up getting Chambers in trouble because he’ll have more of a chance of walking into one of Klitschko’s straight right hands or left hooks. Chambers has the style to beat Wladimir, there’s no question about it. The problem is he might not have the size or the power to get in close without taking terrific punishment on the way in.
Chambers will suffer when he’s on the outside and will have to try to get in close if he wants to get his shots off. Dimitrenko made it easy for Chambers by trying to trade shots with him on the inside instead of clinching him. This is what Wladimir will do when Chambers gets close. He’ll grab him and won’t let him get more than one or possibly two shots off.
That puts a lot of pressure on Chambers to try and make it count when he does get a rare chance to land a shot. He’s going to be eating a lot of punches on the outside and on the way in and is going to have to take all that heavy bombardment before he can get his own punches in. I think it will ultimately prove to be too much for Chambers and we’ll see him get stopped after getting stunned by one of Klitschko’s hooks or right hands.
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