Chisora in difficult fight against Pulev

By Boxing News - 03/20/2016 - Comments

chisora22By Scott Gilfoid: After winning his last five fights against nondescript opponents, #12 WBC, #12 WBO, #13 IBF Dereck Chisora (25-5, 17 KOs) will be in the lion’s den to face a very good heavyweight in #3 WBC Kubrat Pulev (22-1, 12 KOs) at the Barclaycard Arena, in Hamburg, Germany. Pulev and Chisora will be fighting for the vacant EBU heavyweight title in this fight.

As I mentioned previously in another article, it’s an odd move for fighters the age of Chisora and Pulev to be ramming their careers into reverse to go after the EBU title, especially when the two fighters have already fought for a world – and lost – in the past.

It would make more sense for Chisora and Pulev just to keep winning fights so that they can eventually pick up a #1 ranking so that they can another world title shot. I mean, I don’t see either of them ever getting picked out for a voluntary shot; although Chisora was selected by Wladimir Klitschko in one of his voluntary defenses five years ago.

Unfortunately for Chisora, the fight never happened, as Wladimir suffered an abdominal injury, and couldn’t take the fight. After Wladimir healed up, he went in another direction in facing David Haye instead in a unification fight.

Pulev, who will be turning 35 on May 4, lost to Wladimir two years ago by a 5th round knockout in October 2014. Pulev used the wrong game plan for that fight by not moving a lot, and coming forward right into the line of fire with Wladimir. The 6’4 ½” Pulev tried to jab with the 6’6” Wladimir, but discovered quickly that he didn’t have the reach to beat him with that tactic.

So instead of using movement to foil Wladimir’s jabs and right hands, Pulev came directly at him and wound getting knocked out in the 5th. For Chisora, Pulev is going to need a better game plan because he clearly had a faulty one for the Klitschko fight. Pulev has won his last two fights against George Arias and Maurice Harris. However, those were not good enough opponents for Pulev to learn anything from or to show that he’s improved since his fight with Wladimir.

Chisora was stopped by Tyson Fury in 2014 in the 10th round. Chisora has won his last five fights since that time against dreadful opposition. The kind of opposition you would expect to see a novice heavyweight fighting when they start out there careers.

It’s interesting how Chisora’s promoters chose to bring him all the way back to 3rd tier level opposition after his loss to Fury. That’s either a sign that they have no confidence in Chisora, or a sign that they feel that he has a ton still to learn. I think it might be a combination of both. The 35-year-old Chisora doesn’t look improved in his recent mismatches against the fodder opponent, so you would have to expect that what you’ve seem from the past in him is what you’re going to get in his fight against Pulev.

Chisora is likely going to try and walk Pulev down, and look to work him over in close with his Joe Frazier-like fighting style. I don’t know if that’s a style that will be effective against a guy like Pulev, because he usually does well against fighters that come right at him, especially opponents that lead with their head like Chisora typically does. Chisora sometimes stresses out his opponents with his pressure.

We saw that in his fights against the injured Vitali Klitschko and the injured Robert Helenius. Both of those fighters had injuries to one of their arms, and it enabled Chisora to walk them down and give them problems. Chisora still lost both fights, but he had them both plenty worried for a while there. Given Chisora is only 6’2”, he’s pretty much going to have to try and walk Pulev down and land his looping shots if he wants to win.

Pulev is going to be jabbing Chisora’s head off, and likely moving around the ring to avoid his shots. I think it’s going to be very tough for Chisora to handle the shots from Pulev, because he’s a big heavyweight with decent punching power. Chisora’s plodding fighting style likely will agree with Pulev, because he’s fought a lot of plodders during his pro career, and he’s always done well against them.



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