By Scott Gilfoid: International Boxing Federation/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (54-3, 48 KO’s) dominated Eddie Chambers (35-2, 18 KO’s) on Saturday night, stopping him with only five seconds to go in the 12th round to get the win at the ESPRIT arena, in Düsseldorf, Germany. Chambers, 27, never had a chance and received a one-sided beating for 12 rounds that was strangely reminiscent of Klitschko’s first win over Chris Byrd 10 years ago in 2000.

Klitschko was poised to win by a lopsided 12 round decision, but his trainer Emanuel Steward urged him on to try and score a knockout starting in the 11th round. Klitschko went after Chambers hard in the 11th, but was unable to catch up to him to land a big enough punch due to Chambers’ constant running.

Chambers was clearly in the survival mode and just looking to make it to the end of the fight. In between the 11th and 12th rounds, Steward, now very testy, told Wladimir to go out throw more punches to get the knockout. At the start of the 12th Wladimir got up and went after Chambers like a man on a mission.

After battering Chambers for the entire 12th, Klitschko connected with a left hook to the head that sent Chambers down in the corner. While he was falling, Wladimir added a short right hand. It wasn’t needed, because Chambers was totally out. The left hook didn’t look like all that big of a punch, but it landed directly on the right temple of Chambers, catching him perfectly.

What made the punch even harder was the fact that Wladimir appeared to lean in while throwing it and was able to generate a quick whiplash motion with the hook. It was pure arm but as powerful as Wladimir is that’s all he needed.

With the win, Wladimir, 33, now has set his sights on WBA heavyweight champion David Haye (23-1, 21 KO’s) next. Wladimir said after the fight “We have good chances of setting this fight up, maybe even this year.” Haye has a fight against John Ruiz on April 3rd in Manchester, England. It’s unknown whether Haye will get by that fight, because Ruiz is a tough heavyweight and has enough power to give the brittle-chinned Haye a lot of problems if he can land anything decent.

Haye says he doesn’t care which Klitschko brother he fights, but if you were to push him hard to state a preference you can bet it would probably be Wladimir. Vitali Klitschko has the much better chin compared to Wladimir and would be almost an impossible task for the 6’3” Haye to beat.

Haye would have the speed advantage over Vitali, but Haye doesn’t throw enough punches at the heavyweight level to compete with a fighter like Vitali. Additionally, Vitali, 6’8”, would have a huge size advantage over the small Haye. It would be a fight that would probably be a mismatch from the earliest moments with Haye staying on the outside like he did against the weak punching Nikolay Valuev last November and circling the ring without throwing many punches.

I see it as a Chambers type of fight in which Vitali badly punishes Haye until finally he crushes the British heavyweight with a right hand. It would be pretty much the same thing for a bout between Haye and Wladimir Klitschko. Haye, of course, would have a punchers chance if he could get close enough to land one of his pot shots. However, Haye doesn’t have one punch power at the heavyweight level and needs to put together a series of shots to stop a heavyweight like Wladimir. That wouldn’t happen, not with Haye giving up so much height and having to throw big looping haymakers from a long distance away.

If anything, Haye would land one shot at a time. In the meantime, Wladimir would punish him with jabs round after round until taking him out with a right hand. Wladimir might not need to throw a right hand at all. His jab would probably be enough to cause Haye to puff up, bust up and then quit in between rounds.