By Scott Gilfoid: 2nd tier heavyweight Dereck Chisora (23-5, 15 KOs) has been added to this Saturday night’s Sky Box Office card headlined by the heavyweight clash between unbeaten fighters Anthony Joshua (14-0, 14 KOs) and Dillian Whyte (16-0, 13 KOs) at the O2 Arena in London, UK.
Chisora reportedly wants to fight the winner of the Joshua-Whyte fight, which is obviously why he’s been added to the card. Chisora isn’t one of Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn’s fighters. Chisora recently inked with Sauerland Events, a company that frequently does business with Hearn’s company. However, having the winner of the Joshua-Whyte fight face Chisora is kind of a big step down in talent in my view.
I’m just saying. I’d like to see the winner of the Joshua vs. Whyte fight go upwards with their career rather than downwards to fight Chisora, because I see this guy as just a step above the likes of Gary Cornish and Brian Minto.
To me, the winner of the Joshua vs. Whyte fight should be facing at least a bottom level contender, but that’s me. I don’t believe in holding fighters’ hands by keeping their careers stultified by shoving fodder opposition down their gullets one after another. Chisora needs to be fighting B level guys and working his way back up the ladder instead of getting a chance to fight guys that are well above him in terms of their careers.
It’s still unclear who the 31-year-old Chisora’s opponent will be, but it’s likely to be a 3rd tier fighter given that this is short notice and all. However, Chisora has been fighting strictly 3rd tier guys ever since he was whipped badly by Tyson Fury last year after quitting following the 10th round in their WBO heavyweight eliminator bout in November 2014.
Since his quit job against Fury, Chisora has beaten these 3rd tier heavyweights: Peter Erdos. Marcelo Luiz Nascimento and Beka Lobjanidze. Chisora defeated Erdos by a 5th round knockout win last Saturday night on a Sauerland Events card on Hamburg, Germany. Chisora weighed 250lbs for his fight against Erdos, which is about 10 pounds too much for him.
It was a considerable improvement over the flabby 260lbs that he weighed in for his fight against Nascimento last September. Chisora was fat and slow looking in that fight in having to go 10 rounds against a fighter that was destroyed in just two rounds by Dillian Whyte last February.
“My weight is great, everything was good for me,” said Chisora to skysports.com. “A new start in Germany, a new team and I’m feeling great right now. The Sauerlands have arranged another fight for me at The O2. That’s what you want to do as a fighter, stay active. I’m ready to go.”
The Sauerlands appear to be looking to cash out quickly with Chisora if he does fight the winner of the Joshua-Whyte fight. That’s an unwinnable fight for Chisora, as far as I’m concerned. If/when Chisora gets knocked out by the winner of the Joshua vs. Whyte fight, then I have no clue what Sauerland will do with him. If they don’t give him the royal boot in order to cut their losses, they can always use him to fight David Price and Kubrat Pulev, two of Sauerland Events other struggling heavyweights that were recently knocked out. But if they want to slowly build Chisora back to try and get him a world title shot in hopes of him winning a strap somehow, I’m not sure if that’s a smart thing to do.
I might be better off to look for another heavyweight out there that has the kind of talent needed to win one of the straps. I don’t think Chisora is the guy. To be sure, Sauerland can push the reset button on Chisora’s career in hopes that they can feed him enough weak heavyweights to get him a No.1 ranking for a world title shot, but I still don’t see Chisora producing when that time comes.
Yeah, he can mow down fodder opposition like the best of them, but if you put Chisora in with a talented heavyweight contender in a heavyweight eliminator, I see him losing every time. He’s not getting younger fighter. One really hurts Chisora is that he’s not the type that will just get picked out by a heavyweight champion in a voluntary defense. Chisora got his chance to do that in his fight against former WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko three years ago, and his odd behavior before and after the fight likely will make it impossible for him to get picked out a second time by one of the champions.
Chisora slapped Vitali in the face at the weigh-in, spit in the face of his brother Wladimir Klitschko inside the ring that night, and then got into a brawl with David Haye at the post-fight press conference. I think Chisora’s behavior will make it difficult for him to get selected by one of the heavyweight champions for an unearned title shot. I could be wrong though. Who knows? Maybe Deontay Wilder will throw Chisora a bone one of these days and just give him a world title shot for the heck of it. However, I wouldn’t hold my breath if I was Chisora waiting for that to happen. I think the combination of his bizarre behavior for the Vitali fight and his defeats to Haye, Vitali and Fury [X2] make him an undesirable opponent for one of the world champions.
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