By Scott Gilfoid: Heavyweight fringe contender Dereck Chisora will be fined by the British Boxing Board of Control (BBB of C) for his behavior or Wednesday in his press conference with British heavyweight champion Dillian Whyte.
The BBBofC will still allow the Whyte-Chisora fight to take place this Saturday night at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England. However, Chisora will be given a 2-year suspended suspension and fined £25,000 plus £5,000 in additional costs, according to ESPN. Chisora (26-6, 18 KOs) and Whyte will no longer be permitted to have any additional face-offs, and the two fighters will be weighed at separate times on Friday at the Victoria Warehouse in Manchester.
Chisora, 32, will need to be very careful if he doesn’t want to avoid losing two valuable years of his career. At Chisora’s age, it would be bad news for his career if he were to lose two years with a suspension.
What got Chisora in hot water with the BBBofC was his behavior during Wednesday’s press conference in which he picked up a table and tossed it in the direction of Whyte. The table didn’t hit anyone thankfully. There was the potential of injury had someone been hit by the table.
This isn’t the first time that Chisora has gotten in trouble. He’s done a number of things during his career that has led to him being in the situation where he’s been given a 2-year suspended suspension.
The Whyte vs. Chisora fight is the chief support on the Anthony Joshua vs. Eric Molina card on Sky Box Office PPV on Saturday. Matchroom Sport, one of the promoters for the event, would have had to scurry to find a replacement co-feature bout if the BBBofC had not allowed the Chisora vs. Whyte fight to go ahead. There were rumor that 44-year-old former WBO heavyweight champion Shannon “The Cannon” Briggs might have been put in with Whyte as a replacement for Chisora. That would have been a potentially difficult fight for Whyte, who doesn’t possess the two-handed power that Briggs has. It would have been a risky fight for Whyte to take on a big puncher like Briggs if that fight did take place.
Whyte will not have his British heavyweight title fight on the line for the Chisora fight, however. The fight will still be a World Boxing Council eliminator bout. The winner of the fight will be a mandatory challenger for WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder. That might not mean a whole heck of a lot unless the Chisora vs. Whyte winner shows some talent that they haven’t displayed recently. Chisora was recently beaten by Kubrat Pulev, and Whyte was knocked out by Joshua last December. They’ve both since won fights, but they’ve failed to impress.
It’s kind of hard to understand why the WBC is letting the Whyte-Chisora fight be an eliminator. You can argue that Chisora is little more than a high level British journeyman at this point in his career, and Whyte has not looked good at all in beating several mediocre fighters since his loss to Joshua. Whyte had surgery on his left shoulder that he injured last year, and he’s now fighting pretty much one-handed with just his right hand to throw all of his power shots. Before Whyte hurt his left shoulder, he used to have a lot of power in his left. Not anymore.
British Boxing Board of Control had this statement as quoted by ESPN.com about Chisora:
“The Board considered the matter with great care and concern. Mr. Chisora’s previous record, which is not good, was considered, as was a letter written to him, his opponent Dillian Whyte, his manager and the promoters by the General Secretary of the Board, dated the 16th November 2016, warning them that they should not misbehave and bring the sport of boxing into disrepute prior to the contest. Having viewed and listened to a recording of what occurred the Board concluded that Mr. Chisora’s behavior fell far short of that expected from a licensed boxer. Indeed his behavior was wholly unacceptable and deserving of condign punishment.”
It’s hard to know why there’s so much interest in the Chisora vs. Whyte fight. The way I see it, the fight is kind of a journeyman match-up between two guys of marginal talent. The winner of the Whyte vs. Chisora fight is essentially picking out a future knockout victim for Deontay in my view. I can’t see the Chisora-Whyte winner having any chance against a talent like Deontay.
