By Scott Gilfoid: In a move that some boxing fans see as a questionable one, Sauerland Events promotional company has signed former heavyweight world title challenger Dereck Chisora (22-5, 14 KOs) to a contract for an unknown number of fights. Chisora will be turning 32 in December, and he’d not looked too good lately in losing to Tyson Fury by a 10th round stoppage last year in November 2014.
In Chisora’s last fight, he plodded his way to an unimpressive 10 round decision win over journeyman Macelo Luis Nascimento last September. This is a fight that Chisora weighed in at a heavy looking 260 pounds. Chisora won the fight, but it wasn’t the impressive that boxing fans were expecting of him.
Nascimento, 34, is the same fighter that was easily beaten by heavyweight prospect Dillian Whyte by a 2nd round knockout last February, and stopped by Carlos Takam in the 4th round last April, and in the 7th round by Joseph Parker last year in April 2014. With Chisora not being able to score a knockout over Nascimento, it gave some fans to wonder if he’s in the same league as the other heavyweights that could knock him out.
Chisora will be fighting for the first time for Sauerland next Saturday night on December 5th against a still to be determined opponent at the Inselparkhalle in Hamburg, Germany. With the fight being this close and still no opponent named, it’s not likely that Chisora will be fighting anyone good for his next fight.
One fight that boxing fans could see in the very near future if Chisora vs. Anthony Joshua. Sauerland matches their fighters up against Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Sport promotions from time to time, and it would seem likely that Sauerland signed Chisora with the idea of putting him in with Joshua for a decent money fight.
I think Chisora will lose to Joshua badly when and if that fight gets made, but it’ll be a decent money fight for Sauerland. They can then match Chisora up with Kubrat Pulev, a fighter in their Sauerland stable. Chisora will likely lose that fight as well. At that point, I don’t know if Sauerland will bother continuing with Chisora.
That would be 2 defeats in 3 fights with their promotional stable. I don’t’ think there would be any other fights to make for Chisora unless they want to match him against the likes of David Price and Erkan Teper. Those matches wouldn’t make sense if Chisora loses to Joshua and Pulev.
The only way it would make sense for Sauerland to match Chisora against Price or Teper would be if they could put the time, money and effort into building Chisora back up after he loses to Joshua and Pulev. It might take too much time to bring Chisora back from those defeats for it to be worth anything.
‘’I’m excited to be working with the Sauerlands,’’ said Chisora. ‘’This is a start of a new chapter for me. I’ve got a whole new team around me and I’m looking forward to getting back in the mix starting on December 5. I’m fit, I’m focused and ready to rock ‘n’ roll!’’
Chisora needs to get his weight down to the low 240s, and work on his defense if he wants to be able to find success with Sauerland. If they don’t have high expectations for Chisora, then I think he’ll be a good signing for them. Chisora can beat a lot of 2nd tier fighters, and he’s a good domestic level heavyweight. But if the idea is to try and build Chisora up to have him fight for another world title like he did in his loss to former WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko in 2012, then I don’t see that as happening.
It’ll take too long for Chisora to get to a No.1 ranking, and I don’t know that he can make it all the way back without having to fight someone good. Chisora got a break in the past with Vitali giving him a title shot in a voluntary defense in 2012. Chisora also got a break with the World Boxing Organization giving him a No.1 ranking in 2014 to fight Fury in a WBO heavyweight eliminator fight.
Chisora didn’t have to beat anyone good to get the No.1 ranking. He just had to defeat Kevin Johnson, Ondrej Pala, Edmund Gerber, Malik Scott and Hector Alfredo Avila. Beating those guys probably won’t budge Chisora in the top 15 rankings nowadays. Chisora will likely need to beat one or two really good contenders along the way to get a top ranking, and I just don’t know that he can do that.
Comments are closed.