By Lem Satterfield, FanHouse
Philadelphia's "Fast" Eddie Chambers will face Wladimir Klitschko on March 20 at the Esprit Arena in Duesseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany, according to the Associated Press.
Since a fifth-round knockout loss to Lamon Brewster in April of 2004, the 33-year-old Klitschko (53-3, 47 KOs) is 11-0 with eight knockouts.
Chambers sparred with Klitschko in preparation for the champion's November 2006 seventh-round knockout of Calvin Brock, whom Chambers defeated by split-decision in November of 2008.
"Wladimir's very professional and a little rough, actually. I had to go in there and really get back with him in a lot of things. You can see why he's the world champion. As one-dimensional as he seems, and as straight up as he fights, it might seem like he doesn't look all that impressive with a lot of the things that he does," said Chambers.
"But he's a big, strong guy who is very difficult to get to if you don't have the right idea about it. When I was in camp with him, I had the wrong idea in what way to get to him and to deliver my offense. I had a tough time at times, and there were times where I had pretty good times," said Chambers.
"There were good days, there were bad days, days where we went back and forth. But now, I think that I have a better understanding on the style that I need to have and how I should go at him," said Chambers. "Not only that, I'm just in a better mental attitude, better shape -- definitely in better shape -- and I'm a completely different fighter now than I was at that point."
No American-born heavyweight has held a title belt since June 2007, when Shannon Briggs was briefly WBO king. John Ruiz held the WBA title in 2005, and in 2006, Rahman and Byrd, respectively, were champs in the WBC, and, IBF.
England's 6-3, David Haye (23-1, 21 KOs) recently dethroned Russia's seven foot Nicolay Valuev to become the WBA king, this, despite being at a 98-pound disadvantage against the 316-pound Valuev.
The 29-year-old Haye is expected to defend his title perhaps on April 3 against the 38-year-old, John Ruiz (44-8-1, 30 KOs), a former two-time world champion.
"Once you get inside those ropes, the fight and the opportunity that is presented in front of you is first and foremost. Being that America hasn't had the title in a while, and being among the only American hopefuls, and just thinking about all of this pressure and things that are on my shoulders, you know, this pressure comes with the territory," said Chambers.
"If you're not ready for this kind of pressure, then you shouldn't be a heavyweight champion or a heavyweight boxer who is on the verge of being a champion, because it's just going to be too much for you. For me, the only thing that matters is what goes on in that ring that night," said Chambers. "So all of the pressure and things like that, I welcome it. I've been going down this road for a long period of time, and I intend to continue that trend in this next fight."
Wladimir Klitschko calls Chambers (35-1, 18 KOs), currently the best U.S. heavyweight, adding that Chambers "is not No. 1 in the world rankings for nothing,"
"At the time I was sparring with Klitschko, I was undisciplined and I wasn't doing the things that were necessary to improve, and getting satisfied with what I had become," said Chambers. "When you're satisfied, and you're comforable, that's not a recipe for continued success. Once you get comfortable, you need to retire. Once I started working on those extra things, I think that I improved both mentally and physically."
The 6-foot-1, Chambers has won five consecutive fights, two of them by knockout, since a January 2008 loss to 6-foot-2, 30-year-old Russian Alexander Povetkin (18-0, 13 KOs), in Berlin, Germany.
In his last fight, on July 4, Chambers handed Ukrainian, Alexander Dimitrenko, his first loss in 30 bouts before a crowd partisan to Dimitrenko in Hamburg, Germany..
Chambers defeated Dimitrenko by a 12-round, majority decision, taking scores of 117-109, and, 116-111, on two judges' cards, with the third having it a draw, 113-113.
Chambers floored Dimitrenko once with a body shot, and then, dropped him on another occasion "with a hook that knocked his mouthpiece over the top rope and into the second row," said Chambers' manager and trainer, Rob Murray.
"So Eddie has no fear of fighting a big guy, because we've fought before," said Murray. "We have no fear of going to Germany, because we've gone over there before. We've gone over to Germany and lost, and then, we went back over there and won."
Since then, Chambers said many of his fans have told him that they believe that he could be the one to regain a heavyweight crown for America.
"I hear that a ton from my fans. They're like, 'You're the only one who is gonna do it.' It was important for me to go over there to Germany and show my skills," against Dimitrenko, Chambers told FanHouse in October. "Beating Dimitrenko, you know, I realize what it did for the United States and our hopes of having a world champion again."
Chambers' winning streak includes a majority decision over former world champ Samuel Peter of Nigeria on March 27-- two days prior to Chambers' 27th birthday. But it was beating Dimitrekno which set up Chambers as mandatory challenger to 6-foot-6 Klitschko.
Chambers was in more superb condition against the 6-7, 254-pound Dimitrenko, weighing in at 208.
"Dimitrenko is very similar to Klitschko," said Chambers. "And I'll probably have to go to back to Germany to beat him."
How right Chambers was.
"We've been watching Klitschko for over five years. I prepared Eddie when I had him sparring in the camps of Hasim Rahman, Monte Barrett, John Ruiz, Wladimir Klitschko. Every champion or every contender that I could find, I put Eddie into camp with," said Murray, who became Chambers' lead trainer following the loss to Povetkin.
"We've been preparing for this a long time, and we're used to challenges. The greatest challenge that I had to face was cancer, with my team. And we fought this challenge back," said the 65-year-old Murray.
"This is a fight, not the major challenge that had my life on the line with cancer," said Murray. "My team understands that. We're a team, and we fought that back together."
Murray, who once co-managed legendary Hall of Famer, Bernard Hopkins, and, also, guided Steve Little to an upset of Michael Nunn in in February of 1994, handing Nunn only his second loss in 44 bouts on the way to earning the super middleweight (168 pounds) title by split-decision.
"I trained Steve Little, and he was a 40-to-1 underdog and yet he won the super middleweight championship. Yes, the Klitschkos look like insurmountable talents because of their size, but we've basically studied guys who are big," said Murray.
"In the NFL, the defense back is 180 pounds, and yet, he's the last line of defense. You know, quickness, agility and those particular things really play into this," said Murray. "This is not a situation where we're just grateful to have this opportunity to have this opportunity to have this opportunity to win the heavyweight championship of the world, because that's what we plan on doing."
Source: boxing.fanhouse.com
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