By Phil Santos – Overhandright.com – Saturday night on HBO’s Boxing after Dark the most recent hope for an American Heavyweight champion was vanquished. To make matters worse for the red white and blue the loss came at the hands of yet another promising young Russian in Alexander Povetkin..
“Fast” Eddie Chambers appeared to be ready to test his skills against the upper level of the games glamour division. Having recently dispatched Calvin Brock and Dominick Guinn, two fighters who were once considered to be America’s next potential champions, Chambers had fought his way into a title eliminator against Alexander Povetkin.
Both Chambers and Povetkin began the evening as undefeated, undersized, contenders in a division badly in need of a shot in the arm. While second chances are plentiful for today’s heavies a loss would spell “setback” for either fighter. Although Chambers, 30-0 (16), had accumulated a larger number of victories than Povetkin, 14-0 (11), it was Povetkin who had experienced success against more accomplished opponents. The 28 year old Russian owns wins over David Bostice, Larry Donald, and former champion Chris Byrd.
A victory for either Povetkin or Chambers over the likes of Wladimir Klitschko, widely considered the best Heavyweight in the world, Ruslan Chagaev or Sultan Ibragimov seems like a long shot but it is Alexander Povetkin who will get the opportunity to roll the dice against the winner of Klitschko vs. Ibragimov. Chambers, conversely, will need to notch a few quality wins before reemerging into the title mix, a sentence that may mean another year or two before a meaningful bout with title implications will come his way.
Now the 25 year old Chambers will show us just exactly what he is made of. Will his career mirror that of Dominick Guinn or Calvin Brock who once defeated never regained even a semblance of their former selves? Or is he destined for more? Is he capable of a Shannon Briggs type run that featured a few long winning streaks, a world title, and his share of memorable fights? Only time will tell. My best guess is that Eddie Chambers is good enough to compete with the top fighters at Heavyweight but he is not good enough to beat them. He is too skilled and too young at 25 to be labeled a gatekeeper at this point though another loss or two would render him just that.
Who’s next? Will it be Chris Arreola? While Arreola does have an impressive record at 22-0 (20) he really doesn’t have a quality win on his résumé, unless you consider Damian Wills, Malcolm Tann and Thomas Hayes quality opponents. I do not.
Can Eric Fields be the next American big man to challenge the Eastern European stronghold on the division? He made a big splash on ESPN by destroying former Cruiserweight belt holder Kelvin Davis scoring a 1st round TKO. Fields is 25 years old and ran his record to 11-0 (9) after retiring Davis. Obviously it is way too early to consider Fields anything more than a prospect. But I will say Eric Fields is a prospect that is certainly worth keeping an eye on.