By Paul McCreath – Photo by Jan Sanders/Goossen Tutor Promotions – Now that Vitali Klitschko and Juan Carlos Gomez have had their title bout the next important heavyweight match will be Friday March 27 when Eddie Chambers and Sam Peter collide in a 12 rounder to be televised on ESPN. While this is neither a title bout nor an eliminator it seems fairly certain that the winner can look forward to something big in the near future. They have both had chances before and were turned aside but neither one is old and they both came close or won at the top level. With the multitude of champions we have today title fights are not hard to come by and there is always another eliminator just around the corner.
Chambers lost out a year ago to Alex Povetkin in a final eliminator where he started well then faded in mid bout. Whether this was due to Eddie backing off or Povetkin adjusting his tactics and coming on strong is open to debate but at least Chambers got a taste of a big fight.. Earlier he had qualified for this one by narrowly outpointing 31-1 top contender Calvin Brock over 12 rounds. Eddie is now 26 years old and brings a 31-1-0-18 KO record into this fight. He has added 3 wins since the Povetkin defeat but all three were for the most part keep busy fights. Some fans have concerns over Eddie’s lack of aggression against Brock and Povetkin. Could this mean a lack of confidence against top fighters? He will certainly need to overcome this against Sam Peter. Although Eddie mostly likes to counter punch he needs to do this more often.
Sam won the WBC belt last March by stopping the veteran Oleg Maskaev in 6 rounds then lost it in October when he was halted by Vitali Klitschko after 8 rounds. He has also defeated contenders James Toney (twice) and Jameel McCline. Overall he has a 30-2-0- 23KO record so in experience there is not much difference although Sam has met more rated fighters. His other loss was on points against Wlad Klitschko. He is 28 years old and stands 6 foot 1/2 inch, about 1/2 inch shorter in height than Chambers. Sam will have about a 30 pound weight advantage, around 250 to the 220 or so that Eddie usually weighs. There are concerns that Peter may have slipped a bit after his lackluster showing against Vitali. I am inclined to think it was more a case of being outboxed by a bigger and more skilled fighter. Sam could just not get past that long jab of Klitschko’s.
This bout promises the classic boxer versus puncher matchup. Chambers has often been compared to Chris Byrd in size and style although only Chris is a southpaw. I think he is a little more like James Toney and he uses shifty tactics like James and less movement than a prime Byrd. At any rate he has fast hands and not a lot of power. A KO win seems very unlikely but he has a clear edge in technical skills over Peter so he will hope to outbox Sam. The only boxer with similar size and style that Eddie has met would be Derric Rossy who is well below Peter in his world rating.
Sam Peter on the other hand is a pure slugger.While his technical boxing improved somewhat between the first and second James Toney fights he is still basically a slow plodder with a good chin and punching power. It is interesting that Toney, a slick boxer gave Sam a lot of trouble in that first fight and of course Fast Eddie will try to do the same. Whether Sam really improved in the second Toney fight or James just got old can get you in a spirited debate anytime but Sam did do a lot better. His only two losses were to the Klitschko brothers who are nothing like Chambers at all in style or size.
It is hard to imagine Sam Peter outboxing Chambers so you have to think his best chance is going for the KO but is this likely? Sam has never knocked out any top heavyweight other than old Oleg Maskaev when he won his title. Eddie on the other hand has never shown any signs of a weak chin. He seldom gets hit hard enough to really test it. Given these facts I think it is entirely likely that this bout will go the distance barring an injury of some kind and over 12 rounds it would seem that Eddie would be the probable points winner after a good lively scrap.
What do you think?