Eddie Chambers

By Eric Schmidt: In an outcome that came to no surprise, Alexander Povetkin (15-0, 11 KOs) outworked Eddie Chambers (30-1, 16 KOs) through course of their 12-round bout, beating him by a unanimous decision tonight in Berlin, Germany. After a good start in the first three round, in which he landed some good shots to the head of Povetkin, Chambers, 25, only showed brief glimpses of offense the rest of the way. The final judges’ scores were 117-111, 119-109, 116-112.

It seemed that after the fourth round, Chambers was for all practical purposes finished for the fight, doing little the against Povekin for the remainder of the bout. Povetkin, of course, did what he always does, namely, throw tons of punches. In each round, he walk come right at Chambers, showing little fear from him, and throwing numerous punches. Povetkin moves forward with this win to a future showdown with International Boxing Federation heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko.

By Chris Thomas: undefeated heavyweights Eddie Chambers (30-0, 16 KOs) and Alexander Povetkin (14-0, 11 KOs) mix it up on Saturday night in the International Boxing Federation eliminator bout at the Tempodrom, Kreuzberg, in Berlin, Germany. The winner of the bout has the pleasure of facing the victor of next months bout between IBF heavyweight title holder Wladimir Klitschko and WBO champion Sultan Ibragimov. It’s not likely to be Ibragimov that will emerge the winner of that bout, considering that Klitschko is the larger, faster, powerful and by far the more accomplished fighter of the two. Chambers, 25, ranked #1 in the IBF, seems hardly ready, should he defeat Povetkin on Saturday, for a bout with Klitschko.

However, the heavyweight division is so bad right now that Chambers and Povetkin are about the best their is. Unfortunately, there seems to be a wide gulf between them and Wladimir, with the winner of the IBF tournament seeming to be nothing more than cannon fodder for Wladimir. At this stage, it appears likely that it will be Povetkin, since he’s the bigger fighter, more powerful, and has a busier style than Chambers.

HBO’s late-night boxing series kicks off the new year with a heavyweight showdown when HBO BOXING AFTER DARK: ALEXANDER POVETKIN VS. EDDIE CHAMBERS is seen SATURDAY, JAN. 26 at 10:00 p.m. (ET/PT), from the Tempodrome in Berlin, exclusively on HBO. The HBO Sports team of Bob Papa, Max Kellerman and Lennox Lewis will be ringside for the event, which will be available in HDTV, as well as closed-captioned for the hearing-impaired and presented in Spanish on HBO Latino..

This Saturday night, #2 rated heavyweight in the IBF, undefeated Alexander Povetkin (14-0, 11 KOs) goes up against what I personally consider to be the best American heavyweight Eddie Chambers (30-0, 16 KOs) when they meet in the International Boxing Federation elimination fight at Tempodrom, Kreuzberg, in Berlin, Germany. Most people feel that Povetkin, 28, the former 2004 Olympic super heavyweight boxing champion, to be the one that will come out on top and thus move on to a late 2008 showdown with the winner of Wladimir Klitschko vs. Sultan Ibragimov.

Povetkin, however, has faced mostly limited competition in his short career, most recently defeating Chris Byrd by an 11th round stoppage on October 27, 2007. Povetkin looked vulnerable against Byrd, and was repeatedly hit with straight left hands all night long. Povetkin had trouble hitting the badly slowed 37 year-old Byrd, and looked even slower than he did. In contrast, IBF heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, made it look easy blasting apart Byrd a year earlier on April 22nd, 2006. Of course, Povetkin isn’t fighting Klitschko this Saturday, and will only have to deal with the speedy and elusive Chambers.