By Dave Lahr: I think I speak for many fans of the sport by saying that Dereck Chisora (14-0, 9 KO’s) may be doing boxing a huge favor if he knocks out IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (55-3, 49 KO’s) next month on December 11th in their fight at the SAP-Arena, Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Wladimir, 34, has been disappointing champion from day one and has failed to live up to the huge expectations than many fans had for him when he first captured the IBF heavyweight title six years ago.

The heavyweight division needs an exciting heavyweight like Chisora and/or WBA heavyweight champion David Haye (25-1, 23 KO’s). These are the types of heavyweights that thrill the crowd and draw interest to the sport. Wladimir, I hate to say, tends to be a turnoff because he generally does just enough to get the win. Wladimir is the type of heavyweight that’s content to stand on the outside and throw jabs all night long until his badly over-matched opponents fall down late in fights from being hit with too many jabs.

For Chisora to pull off the upset, he’s going to have to immediately lay into Wladimir with huge punches on the inside. Chisora can’t stand around on the outside the way that recent Klitschko victim Eddie Chambers mistakenly did with Wladimir. Chisora has to rush Wladimir, get in close and tag him with short punches to the head. As I’ve pointed out in previous articles, Wladimir loves to clinch. This is his number one defensive strategy against his opponents and it works, because most of his opponents just let him get away with it without opening up with their artillery while being held. Haye and Chisora are completely different fighters. They come from the UK, and over there fighters are taught to fight out of a clinch. They don’t go passive and let themselves be held onto, and they don’t use a clinch to rest like fighters elsewhere.

This is where I believe Chisora has an excellent chance of knocking Wladimir out. I think Wladimir can’t control his clinching instincts at this point in his career, and even if his trainer Emanuel Steward wants him against trying to grab Chisora, Wladimir will simply unconsciously fall into that pattern anyway once Chisora gets near him. This is why Chisora needs to go ballistic once Wladimir starts grabbing him. He needs to fire off power shots in close, and I can see him get the stoppage loss.

Once Chisora beats Wladimir and exhausts all the rematch clauses there is in the contract, we can have a new champion that will finally give boxing fans some excitement for a change.