"I would love to match up with a specific rival or fighter, but in this day and age in the heavyweight division, there is not a lot of that going on, so I just want to get in there against the best competition available that will put me in a position to get out of this sport happily, meaning a title. I would love to have that or just being able to compete against the best...hopefully soon, somebody decides to give me the opportunity and I can bring a title back," stated heavyweight contender Eddie Chambers, who talked about his future plans and much more. Check it out!
PC: How is everything going, Eddie?
EC: Everything is going pretty decent. Obviously I'm not fighting as much as I would like to, only having one fight in September against a journeyman guy in Galen Brown, but I think a change is coming. I think I should be looking at a fight soon. Hopefully I will be back in there by March or so...I'm hoping.
PC: Have you been in the gym working or has it been difficult with no date and no opponent lined up?
EC: I'm still working, man. I gotta do something. First of all, I love the training part of it. I don't mind the training. I love keeping my body in shape and everything like that so I don't get too far away from it, but when you're not preparing for a specific opponent, especially at this level as a fighter, I don't want to say it's wasted, but you can't actively prepare properly. I'm in the gym, but I'm not trying to kill myself because obviously you don't want to wear yourself out.
PC: You were out there in the UK for a little while with Peter and Tyson Fury. Now you're back in Philly. What is the biggest difference between being back here and being in the UK pertaining to your career?
EC: In the UK, it was a great experience for me, but obviously it's not home. I couldn't see my family. And then simple things like going to the courts and shooting basketball, it's not big over there, so it became more of a challenge. So it was hard to kind of settle in, in that regard, but as far as how I was treated and how easy everything seemed to come after awhile being with Peter and Tyson and the guys, it became like a family. It was an easy transition as far as that. It was definitely different. It was definitely something that I had to adjust to, but being with those guys actually helped big time.
PC: Peter definitely added some power and strength to your game. Was it just about him adding power and size or did he also help with punch selection and in turn, that helped your power because you've won 4 of your last 5 fights by knockout?
EC: I think it was a little bit of both. I've always had a great work ethic, but when I got there, I saw what a heavyweight, or even an athlete in general, should work like. They have a supreme work ethic. Some places you go and guys will work hard and you will be somewhat impressed, but being over there, there were days I didn't know if I could survive. It was that level of work. He added a different dimension to my game as far as being aggressive. The power was there. He added the size to go with it and that aggressive mentality as well. And also on top of that, the planning and how to place punches, like you said. All of those things definitely increased my punching power and my KO percentage in the long run. Obviously I have not been able to test it against better opposition, but guys aren't just going to fall because my name is Eddie Chambers. These guys don't really care. They there to fight. But I got some knockouts that most people didn't expect to come and I honestly think it's from that improvement in power and focus on that aspect in that part of my game. A lot of times you get in that ring and me being a boxer, more boxer than puncher, and just thinking about how to deliver the shots and to get the shots off just to outpoint the guy or win exchanges, but not necessarily to hurt the guy, but we changed that totally when I was over there with those guys and added another dimension to my game.
PC: Being that you are a veteran in the game, what was that like to pick up and go to a different country to open up to change so to speak?
EC: Honestly, it was different, but sometimes when you're that close to the edge, sometimes it just takes a little nudge to push you off. For me, that was just basically just getting out the sport and getting away from it. It just felt like I had been getting treated so bad, it was that last strike I had before I went over and I just wasn't sure about it. I had told my girl and a couple of other people, "Look, this is pretty much it. I'm done trying to fight through the crap that is the business of boxing." And if not for Peter and talking to him and actually going over to help Tyson get ready for the David Haye fight, I would have stopped. Peter was that angel on my shoulder at that point, letting me know that there is always a better situation if you just give yourself a better opportunity to get there. He pulled me over and got me bigger and stronger and more excited about the game.
PC: Given everything you just said about the way they work over there, I take it you weren't very surprised when Tyson defeated Wladimir Klitschko?
EC: Not at all (laughing)! Here is the thing, I told as many people as I could before that fight, "Look, if anybody in the world is going to beat this guy, it would be Tyson Fury." They thought I was just being biased, and yeah I was biased because that's my guy, but at the same time, I've been in there with him. I'm looking at it from the perspective of, okay, yeah that's my man and everything, but I'm looking at it from a fighter's perspective and I know Wladimir and I know boxing. You could look at Wladimir and look at Tyson and you see something. You just watch the fight play out and to me, it played out exactly as I expected it; exactly! I knew Wladimir would have to get on the front foot and go towards him and fight him because remember now, he's fighting somebody that's a bit taller with longer reach and can move. So now the fight's even because the height cancels itself out because no one necessarily has an advantage in that. If anything, Tyson had an advantage in which he used. He made Wladimir change his game. His game is to be aggressive to a degree, but mostly against smaller guys and he keeps that range. Now, he can't use his range, so how do you deal with it? How do you respond to that? He has never had to deal with that before. So now it's like, what do I do? How do I change? Some guys can't. That's why his punch output was so low throughout the fight because he couldn't get the proper punches off. So with that being said, can you imagine how their next fight is going to play out? Look, anything can happen. You don't want to go into anything overconfident. He has to stay composed and do exactly what he did the first time. Use the same blueprint that you did in the first fight and you will be successful. I see Wladimir having a little more urgency in this one to get in there and mix it up so he can get his shots off and I see him taking more punishment. And Tyson is going to be a lot more confident, but that can play into Wladimir's hands too because he can go in there and get too aggressive and get caught. We saw that with Artur Szpilka against Deontay Wilder. I thought he was in control up to that point, but you can't run in on the champ and he got a big right hand like that.
PC: What did you think of the heavyweight action from the Barclays Center?
EC: I think it was great for the sport to see that the heavyweights are back and there is a good market for us now. They have a lot of marquee names floating around; American names too. I think it's exciting for boxing as far as the heavyweight division is concerned. However, the performances was just decent in some. A lot of people thought Wilder was that dominant figure in boxing going forward; maybe. When you look at it, it looked like Szpilka had more skills so to speak and he was dealing with Wilder's awkwardness because he is a bit awkward in a way because he's green. Szplika's awkwardness is because he's just awkward; southpaw that comes in at different angles. But he was able to deal with what Wilder had hand to hand as far as Wilder being more athletic and a bigger puncher and things like that. But it didn't matter because skills is what carried the night up until that point when he got caught. Once he got caught, the fight was over. But that goes to show you, the heavyweight division is good because they have names and they have guys, but you look at a lot of these names and they are still untested and unproven, so you can't really say who they really are or what they really are. The fight with Glazkov didn't really get started, but that was for a world title. These are two names that people barely even recognized, but they will all likely at some point be at the top because they are some big guys with ability and athletic; they got some stuff going on for them. But they are not real recognizable names yet, so they are going to have to earn that against better competition obviously. Now he has a world title, so he's going to definitely have to fight better competition, but then again, looking at Deontay, his competition level hasn't been knocking nobody's socks off, so we need to see a lot more from our champions in the next year or so. They are going to have to step up. But I like my guy Tyson getting in the ring with him and facing off with him. I think that's a fight that will happen and that will do great things for the sport of boxing going forward.
PC: Is there anybody in particular you would like to test your skills against or just on your radar?
EC: At this point, I would love to match up with a specific rival or fighter, but in this day and age in the heavyweight division, there is not a lot of that going on, so I just want to get in there against the best competition available that will put me in a position to get out of this sport happily, meaning a title. I would love to have that or just being able to compete against the best. I would love to have those opportunities. I want to be able to go and help people in other ways after I'm done with boxing and send people back to school. Those are the ideas I have and boxing is the vehicle to get me there if I can get the proper fights. But right now, it doesn't necessarily look that promising, but it can happen. And if it can happen, it will happen and that's the way I'm looking at it.
PC: Eddie, I hope to see you back in there soon competing. Best of luck and we will be in touch. Is there anything else you want to add before I let you go?
EC: I appreciate you for having me on and definitely want to give a shout out to my fans and all of the people that support me, especially through the long drought and tough times. One of these days, hopefully soon, somebody decides to give me the opportunity and I can bring a title back!
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]