By Scott Gilfoid: In an incident that looked totally staged, British heavyweight Dereck Chisora (25-5, 17 KOs) attacked 34-year-old former world title challenger Kubrat Pulev (22-1, 12 KOs) earlier today during a face off at their press conference at the Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten, in beautiful Hamburg, Germany.
During the face off, the two fighters had their heads pressed against each other like a couple of old goats. It’s unclear why Pulev would put himself at risk in doing the Billy goat head pressing bit, but he went along with it.
Moments later, Chisora grabbed Pulev from around the back of his head and briefly tried to force him down in a failed wrestling move. Having personally competed in that sport in High school, I must say Chisora’s wrestling move was incredibly amateurish. I mean, if you are going to try for a take down, it’s best to go for the legs.
Chisora tried to force Pulev down by pulling on the back of the head. Rather than tearing Chisora’s head off, Pulev seemed to be good-natured about the whole thing. Pulev even shook Chisora’s hand after that. It’s not what I would have done, but that’s Pulev.
I think he’s with that kind of rough stuff. Like I said, it looked TOTALLY staged to me on Chisora and Pulev’s part. The two fighters are fighting for the EBU heavyweight title this Saturday night on May 7 at the Barclaycard Arena, in Hamburg, Germany. Any kind of publicity, even the bad kind, is what this fight clearly needs because it’s not being talked about much outside of Germany.
I think it would be talked about if Pulev and Chisora hadn’t failed in the past when they’ve tried to fight at the upper level of the heavyweight division. Chisora has failed five times, and he keeps getting more chances. At some point, Chisora will be a journeyman and will run out of chances. Just how many losses it’ll take before he stops getting opportunities is unclear.
My guess is another five to ten more defeats on Chisora’s part and the promoters and sanctioning bodies will likely stop wasting time with him. As for Pulev, he’s only failed once but what a failure it was in his 5th round knockout loss to former world champion Wladimir Klitschko.
The fight took place a little less than two years ago in November 2014, and Pulev was getting dropped repeatedly by Wladimir. It was a wonderment that Pulev even made it out of the first round because he had no defense to Wladimir’s left hook. Pulev couldn’t fight Wladimir at long range by using his jab because Wladimir had the longer reach and the better jab.
After the altercation with Pulev, Chisora kept saying, “Are you scared? Are you scared? I’m not messing around. No more Mr. Nice Guy, I’m here to fight! I’m going to take Pulev to places he’s never been before, and I’m going to make him give up. He’s got nothing I’ve not seen before, and he’s never fought anyone like me. I can tell he’s nervous. He’s out of his depth and he’s going to get knocked out!”
It would be in Chisora’s best interest in Pulev was too scared to throw punches, but I kind of doubt that. Pulev is a former Olympian from Bulgaria and he obviously has been around the block a few times. Pulev isn’t going to be afraid to throw punches on Saturday against the small and round 6’1” Chisora.
It’s not as if Pulev is fighting someone good. Chisora is basically a 2nd tier fighter with an inflated ranking right now. He’s won his last five fights against lesser opponents in confidence boosters. Those fights were obviously used to build Chisora’s shattered confidence following his loss to Tyson Fury in 2014, and to help pad his record with victories.
The sanctioning bodies usually aren’t quick to boost fighters in their rankings when they take on the kind of weak opponents that Chisora has in the last two years, but here is now ranked #8 by the IBF, #11 WBO and #13 by the WBC. With the wins that Chisora has accumulated recently, I wouldn’t have him ranked in the top 15 at all.
Chisora has been fighting it out with 2nd and 3rd tier guys. Since those fighters aren’t ranked in the top 15 after they beat other 2nd and 3rd tier guys, I don’t see why Chisora is being ranked in the top 15 off wins over them. I’m just saying. Chisora should have to beat live bodies to get a high ranking.