By Scott Gilfoid: After having won his last five fights against weak opposition, Dereck Chisora (25-5, 17 KOs) will be stepping up several levels against #3 WBC, #6 IBF Kubrat Pulev (22-1, 12 KOs) this Saturday night at the Barclaycard Arena in Hamburg, Germany.
Chisora’s former conqueror Tyson Fury, who twice beat him with ease, is hoping he’ll defeat the taller Pulev to win the vacant EBU heavyweight title. However, Fury doesn’t think Chisora will be able to do it.
Fury doesn’t say why he thinks Chisora will lose to Pulev, but it’s likely due to the size of the nearly 6’5” Bulgarian Pulev. He’s going to be sporting close to four inch height advantage over Chisora, and he’s the far better boxer of the two.
Chisora is a limited slugger with a Joe Frazier type of fighting style. Chisora possesses old fighting style that does not work well against the top tier heavyweights. Chisora leads with his face and is easy to hit.
Fury thinks Chisora does well against taller fighters except for him. Fury says that Chisora gave Vitali Klitschko problems in their fight in 2012. What Fury doesn’t say is that Vitali suffered a shoulder injury in the 2nd round of the Chisora fight and that he still beat him by a lopsided 12 round decision by the scores 118-110, 118-110 and 119-111. That is not bad for a fighter with just one arm working.
“If I am honest I can’t see him [Chisiora] doing but I would be over the moon for him if he wins that European title and gets a crack at the world title,” said Fury about Chisora to skysports.com. “I’m just worried he’s not going to be able to out-box Pulev though. He’s a taller boxer while Chisora is a short aggressor, so I am not sure how he’s been training and how he’s going to be since the second fight against me.”
Chisora stands to gain a big payday fight against IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua if he can beat Pulev on Saturday. Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn says a fight between Joshua and Chisora is a possibility if Chisora wins against Pulev. However, Fury has his doubts whether Chisora will be able to get the win with him fighting in Germany.
I don’t know that means. I don’t think Pulev will get a controversial win if he beats Chisora. If he beats him, he beats him. It’s not as if it’ll be close. Pulev has a way of boxing the ears off his opponents.
The only guy Pulev couldn’t beat was Wladimir Klitschko, who stopped him in the 5th round in their fight in November 2014. Pulev didn’t have the size to dominate the 6’6” Wladimir like he’d been doing against shorter opponents, and he was quickly taken out by the Ukrainian fighter. Chisora doesn’t have the size or the punching power to blast Pulev out the way that Wladimir did.
“It’s in Germany, in Pulev’s back garden so it is going to be extremely tough,” said Fury.” I have always said I’d love that trilogy with him but as I have said – and I am a man of my words – when I have beaten Wladimir Klitschko that will be it for me. But I’d love seeing Chisora lift that belt and then get another world title shot.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQUKeKfS8kc
It’s going to be tough for Chisora no matter where him and Pulev would fight. I mean, come on. They could have this fight in Neptune with 1,500 mph winds and Chisora is still going to be up against it. Chisora is dealing with a bigger, better and much more advanced fighter than him in the 6’4 ½” Pulev. The Bulgarian fighter isn’t as tall as the 6’9” Fury, but he might as well be.
Pulev has a better jab than Fury and superior punching power. All the things Fury was able to do against Chisora, Pulev will be able to do better. Pulev is a more advanced version of Fury in my view. Yeah, Pulev lost to Wladimir while Fury beat him, but Wladimir was still fighting well enough at that point in his career to beat Pulev. Wladimir now looks like a shot fighter, and I suspect he would lose to Pulev if the two of them were to fight each other right now.