Warren: Chisora is a big underdog, but he could beat Vitali the same way Buster Douglas beat Mike Tyson

By Boxing News - 01/07/2012 - Comments

Image: Warren: Chisora is a big underdog, but he could beat Vitali the same way Buster Douglas beat Mike TysonBy Sean McDaniel: It does without saying that British heavyweight Dereck Chisora (15-2, 9 KO’s) is a huge underdog for his next fight against WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (43-2, 40 KO’s) on February 18th at the Olymphialle, in Munich, Germany. Chisora, 28, is so overmatched on so many different levels that it’s really hard to pick an area where he has a clear advantage aside from his youth.

In that case, Chisora’s youth is working against him because he hasn’t been around long enough to get enough experience against quality heavyweights to prepare him for a fight against Vitali. Chisora has fought two huge heavyweights in his last two fights in bouts against 6’9” Tyson Fury and 6’6 ½” Robert Helenius. Unfortunately, Chisora’s results have been pretty terrible with him losing both of the fights. You can say he might have deserved a win over Helenius in his last fight last December, but the fact of the matter is Chisora was fighting a guy with a cracked bone in his right hand in Helenius and Chisora still couldn’t win.

Now he’s facing a fighter in Vitali that’s a lot better than both of those guys. It’s really not even close. Helenius and Fury would be knocked out early by Vitali. He wouldn’t hold off and let either of them survive and would just get it over with instead of carrying them for the benefit of the German audience.

Chisora’s promoter Frank Warren thinks Chisora has a real chance in this fight, saying in his column at thesun.co.uk “He’s [Chisora] a big underdog but it could be a big upset like Buster Douglas beating Mike Tyson.”

I don’t see the two fights having anything in common. Buster Douglas, 6’3 ½”, 225lbs, was a tall athletic heavyweight with an incredible 12 inch reach advantage over the 5’10” Mike Tyson and that gave Douglas a huge starting point for his success in that fight. He had a great jab, was in excellent shape and moved beautifully all night against Tyson to keep from eating huge shots. Had Douglas not had the size advantage, he would have probably been taken out in two or three rounds by Tyson.

In contrast, Chisora, 6’1 ½”, is much shorter than the 6’7” Klitschko and is giving up six inches in reach and a lot more than that in the power department. Vitali is a much better defensive fighter than Chisora and he’s going to have a big pro-Vitali German crowd that will be rooting him on the entire fight for as long it lasts. The variables in this fight just don’t spell out a victory for Chisora.



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