Chisora says money must be right for Joshua fight

By Boxing News - 12/15/2015 - Comments

chisora5By Scott Gilfoid: If promoter Eddie Hearn wants high level journeyman Dereck Chisora (24-5, 16 KOs) to be the opponent for his fighter British and Commonwealth heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua’s next fight on April 9th, then he’s going to have to make it worthwhile financially for the 31-yer-old Chisora to take the fight, because he says he wants to be paid.

In other words, Chisora isn’t going to take the fight on the cheap just for the heck of it. Joshua would make big cash by fighting Chisora at the O2 and having the fight on Sky Box Office. If Joshua is going to be making big bank, then Chisora rightfully wants to share in some of that loot. He doesn’t want to see Joshua get all that cash and him just getting some small scrapings of leftover green.

“It has to be right for both parties. I am not just going to get in there because it is good for boxing. It has to be financially right for him and for myself, too,” Chisora said to skysports.com.

So there it is. If Hearn wants Chisora to be the next guy for Joshua to fight, then he’s going to need to dig deep into his purse to come up with enough loot to lure him into the ring. If not, then Chisora will go his way and Joshua another way.

This is what I expected from Chisora. Now that he’s signed with Sauerland Events, he has the option of fighting all of their heavyweights like David Price, Kubrat Pulev and Erkan Teper. By fighting Joshua and potentially taking a loss to him, it could mess up his fights against those guys. That’s why it’s important to make as much money as possible. But it’s more than that. If Joshua and Hearn’s Matchroom Sport promotional company are going to be making a ton of money from a Joshua-Chisora fight, then it makes sense for Chisora to have his hand out asking ‘where is mine.’

What we don’t want to see is Chisora getting a lowball offer that is so incredibly low that it’s not even worth his time in taking the fight. That’s why I have serious doubts that the Joshua vs. Chisora fight will ever take place. I don’t think Hearn and Joshua will offer Chisora enough money for him to want to be able to properly wet his beak and accept the fight. If they justify a low offer on Chisora having lost his two fights against Tyson Fury, and his fight against David Haye, I don’t think that’s going to convince Chisora to take money that he doesn’t feel is fair.

If we’re going to take splits for a Chisora vs. Joshua fight, I think somewhere along the lines of 70-30 or 60-40 would be fair for a fight between the two of them with Joshua getting the bigger split. But if it’s something like 80-20 or 90-10 in favor of Joshua, then I could see how Chisora would say ‘forget that’ and move on to fights where he’s at least getting a healthy split of the loot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rw1eHnTjL-o

I know Hearn has dreams of Joshua one day winning a heavyweight world title in the future, but the fact of the matter is Joshua was almost knocked out last Saturday night by Dillian Whyte, who probably would have finished him off if he didn’t injure his left shoulder while throwing the left hook that hurt Joshua in the 2nd round. Even with just his right hand that he was using after the injury, Whyte pretty well exposed Joshua as being limited and not what many boxing fans thought he would be.

“I think if we’re looking at defending that British title then Chisora is top of the pile of options in that respect,” Hearn said to skysports.com.

If Hearn doesn’t match Joshua against Chisora, then the choices really drop off dramatically after that. Hearn can’t put Joshua in with David Haye yet for April, because Haye has a fight on January 16th against #10 WBA Mark De Mori, and he’s going to need at least one more tune-up fight after that before he’s ready to take on Joshua. Haye hasn’t fought in three years since 2012, and he might not even win his next fight against De Mori.

If Joshua can’t get a fight against Chisora, then Hearn is going to need to try and get someone else like Erkan Teper. Right now, Teper is injured, but when he does come back from his injury, he’ll likely be fighting Robert Helenious. As such, I don’t see Teper being available for Joshua. If Hearn tries to match Joshua against the recently knocked out David Price, I don’t think that fight sells. How does Hearn sell a fight between Joshua and a guy that was just knocked out in 2 rounds by Teper?

YouTube video

Chisora has won his last four fights since his loss to Tyson Fury last year in November. Last Saturday, Chisora defeated Jakov Gospic by a 3rd round knockout on the Joshua-Whyte card at the O2 Arena in London, UK.



Comments are closed.