Wlad Klitschko is defending his pretty much undisputed heavyweight title tonight against American Eddie Chambers. Chambers' only loss was to Up & Coming Olympic amateur champ Alexander Povetkin in '08. Wins over Samuel Peter and previously undefeated (tho protected) Ukranian star Sascha Dimitrenko last year means you can't really quibble with Chambers getting a shot.
There is, however, a typo in Chambers nickname "FAST". The tubby one is giving half a foot away to Wlad, and at this level doesn't have the pop to taking advantage of Wlad's biggest vulnerability - his whiskers. For the uninitiated Wlad is pretty much a swell (and slightly dodgy) chinned Ivan Drago, and should jab his way to victory against Chambers. 1/8 holds absolutely no interest tho, and if Chambers does what I suspect he might do tonight and run all night, he could last 12 to come away with a lopsided defeat. He has also never been budged by Povetkin, Peter and Dimitrenko over 36 rounds (might be 34 now I think of it) and as a result I think
Ladbrokes are slightly simplistic in offering
15/8 that Wlad must make do with a points win tonight.
Over the border in France meanwhile Doncaster's Jamie McDonnell takes on Jerome Arould for the vacant European title. McDonnell caused a bit of an upset in scraping past Ian Napa to claim the British and Commonwealth titles in January. Although a gutsy win, to cut a long story short I think McDonnell is in truth very lucky even to be arguing he's at the top of the domestic scene, and his opponent tonight should have too much for him. Arnould was outclassed in a world title tily three years ago, but is a decent boxer (only have a vido of him taking on Codet but all the same looked well equipped) and has a pretty decent KO record developing. Some of the form on this works out well, and although McDonnell has never been stopped, he's also never fought anyone with Arnould's power, and it's
Laddies once again who are sticking their necks on the line going
11/4 on Arnould by KO or TKO.
Across the pond, former world cruiserweight challenger Jonathan Banks continues his bid to succeed in the more lucrative heavyweight ranks. Banks is 21-1, his only loss coming via TKO to Tomasz Adamek for the latter's IBF world title (and who as a by the by has also since moved up to the gold ribbon weight class).
Banks has decent skill, and as a cruiser I'd have him in the Top 5. However at heavyweight he's going to be found out, and in all likelyhood by his chin. A few years back Banks was down twice in the first against Elisio Castillo. Adamek then dealt with him big time last year. In with the big boys therefore, it's only going to be a matter of time before Banks gets spanked. Tonight's opponent, Travis Walker is a one trick pony. However that trick is to go for the early KO. In 34 wins he's got 28 of them inside the distance. Conversely if Walker doesn't get the KO he'll likely get KO'd, and although I'm not sold at all on Banks translating his decent KO record up at 200lb, he may well have enough to deal with Walker so long as he survives the early onsought. But 1/2 is poor value for that given there's so many question marks over Banks's longevity at heavy, and so there's madder punts in taking
Walker by KO or TKO at 7/2 with Boylesports.
Boxing Tonight
20-03-2010, 13:43
