Wladimir Klitschko's Komeback

The date has been set for the return of the IBF/BO/IBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko at last as he fights deserving contender "Fast" Eddie Chambers in Germany on 20^th March. Though it may be viewed as likely to be one sided, lets have a real look as to why this fight is one worth making note of (unlike Wladimir's brother, Vitali Klitschko, who is about to face Kevin Johnson this coming Saturday) as to be honest, there is a few reasons why these two should meet. After Arreola was demolished, there was only Johnson and Chambers left from America as targets for the Klitschko's (as John Ruiz is tied up with hat seems like never ending WBA title fights). With Vitali taking on Johnson there he goes from the mix.

Eddie Chambers is the WBO#1 (and IBF #3, #6 with the IBO) as well as this being a mandatory title fight due to Chambers winning an eliminator for the WBO title last time out against Alexander Dimitrenko. Chambers is effectively the last hope for America and is on a bit of a roll, having won his last 5 (since suffering his only career loss to Alexander Povetkin in January 2008-on points), the last two names in particular on his record are the keys here. He beat Samuel Peter (despite it being a majority decision on the judges score cards, I've yet to come across anyone who felt Chambers didn't walk the fight) in a stinker back in March 2009, this is interesting as Peter has fought Wladimir and actually been a "world" champion himself. Peter when he was about 20lbs lighter knocked down Wladimir 3 times on route to a points loss after being clinically out boxed despite scoring the knock downs. 18 months after losing to Wladimir he won the WBC title (having previously held the Interim title) before losing to that to Vitali Klitschko 7 months later. It should be noted that Chambers didn't seem particularly bothered by Peter, though admittedly it wasn't the same Peter that had given Klitschko the knock downs.

The other opponent was Dimitrenko in the WBO Eliminator, Dimitrenko was unbeaten in 29 starts, had a similar build to Wladimir with a 1" height difference and 2" reach distance and was considered a Klitschko Klone by many of those in the media. He too was a Ukrainian and fought out of Germany, though the big difference is the power between the Klitschko's and Dimitrenko (Dimitrenko is rather feather fisted in comparison to the viciously solid hitting brothers). Chambers won a majority decision here too, again he deserved a unanimous (and hopefully someone has had a word with judge Paul Thomas about what he saw out there).

So add this mini-roll that Chambers is on to the fact Wladimir has had the longest break of his career with out a fight (it will be 9 months since he last fought, beating Ruslan Chagaev via a 9^th round retirement)and you again have a rather tasty proposition. Though Chambers is a soft puncher and this often works against him, he has finally looked like having the drive to drop some of the excess flab and work tirelessly using his speed. In fact he'd dropped a 14 ¾ lbs between the fight with Peter and the fight with Dimitrenko, and it showed as he probably had the best fight of his career. Though saying that, Wladimir has twice fought the similar Chris Byrd twice and knocked him out in their rematch (had dominated a points decision in their first match) so Chambers will need to hope he catches Klitschko on an bad night. As well as that is the fact that Klitschko has been in the sort of mood to stop opponents recently, stopping 7 of his last 9 all in the last 4 years with only Sultan Ibraimov and Samuel Peter taking him the distance, Chambers doesn't have the size of either of those, and probably not the durability.

A prediction will be a late stoppage for the big fellow from Ukraine who should then be getting lined up to fight Povetkin (the IBF #1, WBO #2, WBC #3 and IBO #7) sometime later in the year. Though many dislike the 53-3 (47 KO's) Ukrainians style of safety first it's unarguably a way that has seen him unbeaten in 5 years and in complete control of almost every fight since, it's safety first but usually sees him wearing his opponents down with accurate hard punches. They will be the key against Chambers, who may win a round or two but won't like the taste of Klitschko's power.