By Dave Lahr: International Boxing Federation/World Boxing Organization heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (53-3, 47 KO’s) is wary about this Saturday night’s fight against his number # 1 challenger Eddie Chambers (35-1, 18 KO”s) at the ESPRIT arena, Düsseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. In an article at Sport.ru, the thirty-three year old Klitschko says “How dangerous is Eddie Chambers? I am fully aware that his little man is extremely dangerous.” Chambers will be giving up nearly six inches in height and over 30+ pounds in weight to the much bigger Wladimir. This could end up meaning a lot if Chambers isn’t able to get within punching range or if he can’t take the big punishing shots from Klitschko.

Being the smaller guy normally isn’t a plus in the heavyweight division. Although there are sometimes some good small heavyweights like Mike Tyson that come around every so often that can beat the bigger heavyweights, but that’s rare. Most of the time, it’s the bigger heavyweight that wins against the smaller fighters. Chambers, 6’1”, has the speed to compete with Klitschko, but it remains to be seen whether he has the size or the power.

Speed is a great factor, but when speed is all a fighter has, they often will still get beaten, especially when they’re facing an opponent like Klitschko who is much bigger and hits much harder. In that case, Chambers is going to have to fight smart, avoid Klitschko’s right hand and left hooks, and do a good job of closing the distance on him to get inside.

On the outside, Klitschko is tough to beat and can be dangerous when he’s feeling brave enough to throw power shots, which is becoming rarer and rarer these days. However, on the inside, Klitschko is very weak, not skilled and ill-suited for the inside game. This is where Chambers has a big advantage. The trick for Chambers is to stay out of the way of Wladimir’s power jab and big shots while on the outside, and try to get in close and fast as humanly possible.

It’s not hard to get inside on Klitschko, because his accuracy is power, and he often has a hard time trying to get coordination together. Wladimir can easily be thrown off by an awkward fighter, such as in his fight against Calvin Brock in 2006. In those cases, Wladimir misses a lot and grabs a great deal to keep his opponent from landing. Chambers must hit Klitschko inside any way he can.

Even if Chambers is being held on to, if, he has a free hand, he needs to hit Klitschko to make him think twice about wanting to grab him all the time. Klitschko can be hurt while on the inside as well. In getting close to Corrie Sanders in his 2nd round knockout loss to Sanders in 2003, Klitschko lowered his hands while in close with Sanders while attempting to clinch.

Sanders took advantage of this by nailing Klitschko with a big left hand that dropped him. Klitschko seems to forget himself while inside and fights like an amateur. He doesn’t protect himself well in close and appears to count on his opponent playing it nice and not hitting him. Klitschko obviously hasn’t had enough experience fighting heavyweights that can fight on the inside well, because if he had he would have learned specific rules on what or what not to do while in close with an opponent.

Chambers must take advantage of Klitschko’s inability to fight inside and belt him as hard as he can. I think Chambers might be able to knock Klitschko out with a short punch if he hits him hard enough. But the main thing is Chambers needs to make Klitschko pay each time he tries to clinch.

If Chambers can get Klitschko thinking twice about wanting to grab him all the time like he does with all of his opponents, it will force Klitschko to fight harder without the rest breaks he’s grown accustomed to getting while in a clinch and possibly lead to him running out of gas entirely like he did in his losses to Ross Puritty and Lamon Brewster.