Klitschko vs Chambers: Fast Eddie Attempts To Bring Belt to...Pittsburgh

Eddie Chambers is a Pittsburgh fighter.

Being a native of the area, it’s very important to me that everyone understands that Chambers is a Pittsburgh fighter who now trains out of Philadelphia.  There seems to be some confusion as to where exactly he’s from.  He’s from Homewood, one of the toughest, most notorious neighborhoods in Pittsburgh. 

Sure, it’s possible that he may have gotten better once he moved his training to Philadelphia, and sure, I guess a correlation could be made, but I’m happy to leave it at coincidence.  They have enough boxing glory to claim out east.  Give us this one and let Paul Spadafora successfully continue his comeback.  That’s not much to ask.

Chambers, nicknamed “Fast Eddie,” isn’t a heavyweight that’s become typical of our times.  He is a graceful, skilled pugilist who relies on hand speed and angles and he’ll be going into the lion’s den in Dusseldorf, Germany to try and wrest the heavyweight championship of the world away from the man who is now the prototypical heavyweight of our times, the hulking Adonis known as “Dr. Steelhammer” Wladimir Klitschko.  

The odds against Chambers are long and the deck is stacked in favor of the champion.  Although Chambers did come away with a decision victory in his last fight against Alexander Dimitrenko in Hamburg, Germany, there aren’t many American heavyweights who are going to make a living getting decisions in Germany. 

Yet, conventional wisdom would tell us that a decision is “Fast Eddie’s” best chance to win the title.  He’s not known for his punching power; just over half of his thirty five victories being by way of knockout  and he’s going against a very large, athletic man in Klitschko, who is more than happy to stay on the outside and simply jab his opponents into submission.

It would seem that “Fast Eddie” has about a New Yorker’s chance in Texas (see Malignaggi vs. Diaz) of leaving Dusseldorf with the championship, now doesn’t it? 

So it would seem.

Except, this is boxing and there are times in this sport where things happen that just aren’t expected.  In fact, there is no other sport in which hindsight evaluation/prediction is so prevalent. 

It happened when Lennox Lewis got knocked out by Hasim Rahman in South Africa and it happened when Manny Pacquiao destroyed Oscar De la Hoya and when Kelly Pavlik got nearly shut out against Bernard Hopkins. 

Experts came out of the woodwork and pointed to all of the reasons that they knew these, somewhat at least, unexpected outcomes occurred: Lewis was making a movie, De la Hoya was shot, Pavlik can’t fight anyone with movement, etc.

So as a sort of preview, I’m going to provide a “hindsight” analysis of just how it could be that Eddie Chambers could come away from Germany the victor and bring the heavyweight title back to Pittsburgh and pick up where Michael Moorer left off.

To figure how it is that Eddie Chambers could win the title is to understand his opponent.  The 6'6" Klitschko, who looks as though he were carved out of granite, hasn’t lost since he brought in hall of fame trainer, Emmanuel Steward, which comes up to about five years now.   

Steward is a master trainer and though he always seemed to know what to do with tall fighters, Klitschko isn’t the best fighter that he’s ever trained.  There were simple things that Steward changed.  For one, he developed his jab.  The second thing he changed, and this goes part in parcel with the development of the jab, is that he keeps him out of harm’s way.   

This is also the reason why HBO, Showtime and ESPN are not televising this fight in America.   

No one in America wants to see that style of fight from a man who looks like Klitschko does. 

But it’s effective and it works two-fold.  By using his stiff, distance-keeping jab, Klitschko can keep his opponent at a comfortable range and frustrate him as well, when all the while he’s conserving his own energy because he’s not throwing a lot of combinations. 

This is where “Fast Eddie’s” style can become a nightmare for Klitschko.  He can use his movement to keep away from the jab and circle to his right, away from Klitschko’s big right hand that he occasionally throws behind his steady stream of jabs.

If he has the will to take some jabs, but the movement to not get hit with them as much as his predecessors, then Chambers can make the fight very interesting.  He has enough skills and movement to get Klitschko out of his comfort zone.  It could be possible that Chambers can frustrate Klitschko into thinking that he needs to do more work.   

That can go one of two ways for Chambers:  He can either wear the champion down and possibly land more punches and hope for a decision, or, and this is a big obvious or…he’ll get knocked out.   

My bet is that Chambers won’t get knocked out, though.  He’s too smart and he seems to be a man of character. 

Or it could just be that he’s from Pittsburgh, not Philadelphia, and I may be a bit impartial on this one. 

Forgive me that indulgence.