Eddie Chambers has given a fascinating insight into what happened during the rounds he shared with Tyson Fury.
At the peak of his powers, ‘Fast’ was a truly exceptional competitor, utilizing his formidable speed and fight IQ to compile a fantastic resume, including Samuel Peter and Alexander Dimitrenko.
Therefore, every time the American set foot in the ring with ‘The Gypsy King’ they produced something special, with those inside the gym blown away by the caliber on display.
Now, Chambers has candidly opened up about his time in the UK, and what was going through his head as he adapted to exchanging blows with a giant of the heavyweight game.
Eddie Chambers says everyone had problems sparring Tyson Fury
After making a reputation for himself in America, as a slick fighter with an unrelenting will to win, Eddie Chambers flew over to Bolton, England, to work with Tyson Fury and his team.
This decision ushered in the next chapter of the warrior’s career, with the icon going on an incredible adventure.
In an exclusive interview with Bloody Knockout, the 42-year-old reminisced: “I’ve got too many stories of being around Tyson, and all of them are good. What you see is what you get, but a lot of people misconstrue the way he talks and how confident he is for him being a bad person. He’s one of the best people I’ve ever met, and so is Peter Fury. The whole crew is really respectful and humble. They’ll give you the shirt off their back. They treated me like family.
“Being in the UK was a weird experience because I’d never lived abroad. So, me being able to come over to another country, although it’s English speaking, which is easy, and I love the accent, but trying to find my way, they made it extremely easy. It was fun, but it was the hardest training I’ve ever had in boxing.
“Tyson Fury was probably the toughest sparring I ever had. I’ve had some other really hard sparring over the years. But this is one thing I’ve always said: it’s hard for me to believe that anybody that doesn’t have a continued amount of time with Tyson, can ever beat him. It’s that crazy.
“Now, I was in camp with him for a year. So, I had so much information that I downloaded from working with him—trial and error, which was mostly error. There was a couple of different things that I was kind of able to do to keep myself in it, and give myself an opportunity to do well in the sparring, but there was points where I was like, ‘Yo, I don’t know how anybody can beat this dude’.”
Chambers continued: “He was younger at the time; he was still mobile. But he’s also 6ft9. So, it’s like, ‘What am I gonna do? How can I compete’? It took a lot of soul searching, and the strength and the size he had, and the sheer dedication that we had to put in, training three times a day, with the intensity of a sprint, for the entire time — it was incredible. It was so hard, that just doing it for a year straight, it really took a lot out of me. At one point, I had a flu from overworking and working hard, for like two-and-a-half months — I could not get rid of it, because my body was just so beat down from the work. I had two fights in the course of a month, and it finally got away from me. I was able to feel a little bit better.
“Nothing but great memories. Even the hard stuff. We went to France first, and that was so intense. I hadn’t had a real serious camp in a while, and I went from nothing and eating bad food, to jumping in with them and going at one million miles an hour. It was an experience.
“Some of those sparring sessions, if we recorded them, we could sell them. I’m telling you, they were worth the price of admission, with me, Big Hughie, Little Hughie, Isaac Lowe was there, my guy Dave Allen was there.
“It was crazy; there were a couple of legends in the area. There was so many guys that came through, and every single one of them struggled with Tyson.”
Eddie Chambers says Tony Bellew is a massive puncher
Fury isn’t the only champion Chambers had the opportunity to trade leather with in England. During his time in the UK, the athlete exchanged blows with Tony Bellew, and he was extremely impressed by the power ‘The Bomber’ carried in his fists.
The Pennsylvanian exclaimed: “I even sparred Tony Bellew, I had work with Callum Smith. I really liked Tony. He’s a great dude, and he punched a lot harder than people understand.
“There’s so many great memories from being over there. It’s a shame I was only there for a year. But boxing, if you don’t see certain things happening, especially as long as I was in it up to that point, I’d been a 14-year pro, you almost want to get away from it. It’s rough.”