Kaspars Kambala, UNLV’s all-time leader in free throws made (also fourth on the rebounding list, eighth in scoring), has traded the hard court for the squared circle. Shrewd career move? Maybe. Boxing’s current heavyweight champs were born in Eastern Europe (WBA champ Ruslan Chagaev in Uzbekistan, IBF king Wladimir Klitschko in the Ukraine and WBO title-holder Sultan Ibragimov in Russia). Kambala be would be Latvia’s first heavyweight champ.
What’s harder, a basketball game or a fight?
They’re both physical sports. In basketball, you don’t get hit in the face as often. You mostly have to watch for elbows. Boxing is more physical. You’ve got another guy trying to knock you out. That makes him dangerous.
First pro game, first fight—in which were you more nervous?
I was 14 for my first game as a pro. I was on a club team in Latvia. I was in for two minutes, and I was more tired than I have ever been. I had one rebound and played defense two or three times, and I was exhausted.
You made good money playing six years of pro basketball in Europe. Now you’re fighting for peanuts?
If you find something that you love to do and it challenges you, that’s what’s important. Basketball will always be there for me. Not many people can say they’ve played professional basketball and been a professional boxer. I can.
How far can you take this boxing thing?
Mark Philippi is my strength coach, and he’s been the world’s strongest man [actually, a two-time finalist] and trained lots of world-class athletes, and Richard Steele [Hall of Fame referee who called 167 world-title fights] and his staff are teaching me the craft of boxing. Only God knows how far.