By Manuel Dowder
With IBF/WBO Wladimir Klitschko’s recent surgery on his shoulder, his bout with American Eddie Chambers has had to be postponed. As of now, it looks as if Klitschko will be facing Chambers, 27, in March 2010, based on krikya360.com reports. This could be changed depending on how the healing goes for Klitschko’s surgically repaired shoulder.
The fight will still be a decent one to watch. Most people don’t give Chambers (35-1, 18 KO’s) much of chance beat Wladimir (53-3, 47 KO’s), because of Chambers's limited size and power.
However, Chambers showed in his last fight against 6’7” Alexander Dimitrenko that he could deal with a fighter with a lot of size, if not power. Klitschko, 33, is a whole different kettle of fish, because he not only has much more power than Dimitrenko, but he also has a lot better hand speed and weaponry.
Many of the things that Chambers was able to get away with against Dimitrenko, such as staying close on the inside and throwing hooks and uppercuts, are things that Chambers won’t likely be able to get away with against the stronger, more defensively minded Klitschko.
Chambers will likely take heavy shots on the way inside, and when he does finally get near enough to Klitschko to punch, Wladimir will in all likelihood grab him in a clinch, taking away the opportunity for Chambers to land his shorter punches. This means that Chambers will have to try and take full advantage of the few chances that he gets by punching as hard as he can in hopes of catching Klitschko during a clinch and stunning him. It’s not likely to happen, but it’s really Chambers’ best shot at winning the fight.
Klitschko is coming off a 9th round TKO victory over Ruslan Chagaev on June 20th, in Germany. Klitschko was supposed to be fighting British heavyweight David Haye, but he backed out saying that he had hurt his back. If Klitschko had fought Haye, HBO would have shown the fight, because this was a bout that they wanted to show to the American public.
They weren’t interested in showing the Chagaev-Klitschko bout, and instead passed on it. The bout was then shown on ESPN. If HBO takes a pass on the Chambers-Klitschko bout as well, it’s hard to see what HBO is waiting for. That is about as good as it gets in the heavyweight division, unless they’re counting on Haye and Klitschko meeting up in the ring in the future.
Hopefully, HBO isn’t saving up all their marbles for this fight, because it may never happen. Haye could get flattened by the seven foot World Boxing Association heavyweight champion Nikolai Valuev, who Haye is fighting on November 7th. Even if Haye does win that fight, the Klitschko brothers have said that Haye has burned his bridges with both of them because of his pulling out of fights or fight negotiations suddenly.
ADD COMMENT