By Scott Gilfoid: #10 WBC Dereck Chisora wants a title shot against WBC heavyweight champion Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder after he faces Robert Helenius for the vacant WBC Silver heavyweight title on May 27 next month at the Hartwall Arena in Helsinki, Finland. The 33-year-old Chisora isn’t exactly doing well in his career at present time, having lost 2 out of his last 3 fights.
If Chisora gets a title shot off the back of a win over the 33-year-old Helenius, it could raise some eyebrows among boxing fans and especially with the higher ranked contenders in the division. There are contenders ranked above Chisora that have been waiting for their turn to fight Deontay, and some of them doing a lot better than him.
Chisora still has unfinished business with Kubrat Pulev and Dillian Whyte. They both beat him recently by a 12 round split decision. Those are the fights Chisora should be shooting for. It looks weird when fighters lose and then try and go straight to a title shortly after that without avenging their losses.
“That is what we’re going for, I want Vegas,” Chisora said to skysports.com. “I really want to fight Deontay. I think it will be a great fight and see what he says.”
If Chisora whips Helenius on May 27, and that’s a big IF, he’ll certainly get pushed up the WBC’s rankings some, but that won’t guarantee a title shot in the near future. As long Chisora is willing to wait possibly 2-3 years, he’ll eventually get his title shot. But I certainly don’t see it happening in 2017 and definitely not 2018. My guess is Chisora could fight for a world title in 2020. Chisora isn’t popular enough for Wilder to go after a fight against him in my view.
Chisora already fought for a world title in February 2012 against former WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko. At the time, Chisora had lost 2 out of his last 3 fights going into that title shot. Why on earth Vitali gave Chisora a title shot in a voluntary defense of his WBC belt is anyone’s guess.
The way that Chisora conducted himself during the lead up to the fight was questionable. He slapped Vitali in face at the weigh-in, and then later spit water into the face of Wladimir Klitschko inside the ring on the night of the fight. I don’t know that Wilder would want to put up with that kind of stuff. That’s why I believe that Chisora will need to become the mandatory challenger before he gets another title shot. I’m just saying.
Why would Deontay want to fight in Vegas? His boxing fans are in Alabama. There would be no reason for Wilder to ever fight Chisora in Las Vegas, because it’s not going to draw fans if they were to stage a fight in that part of the States. I mean, Wilder vs. Anthony Joshua or Wladimir Klitschko would potentially do well in Vegas, but I don’t think Wilder-Chisora would bring any kind of boxing crowd. I’d be surprised if a fight of that nature brought even 3000 fans.
Wilder can get a lot more fans to see his fights if he fights in Birmingham, Alabama. That’s where Wilder is able to draw a huge amount of fans. I don’t think Wilder has much of any interest in fighting Chisora though. Wilder is targeting Anthony Joshua and Joseph Parker. Those are the 2 names that Wilder wants. Chisora would be nothing more than yet another voluntary defense for Deontay, and he’s already had 5 of them since winning the World Boxing Council belt in 2015.
I don’t think the WBC is going to let Wilder keep making voluntary defenses, however. He’s supposed to be facing his mandatory challenger Bermane Stiverne. Chisora can get in line. After Wilder gets past Stiverne and fights a unification fight, he could look for another voluntary defense. Chisora might luck out at that point or he may get passed over by Wilder. It’s hard to say. If Wilder chooses to skip a fight against Chisora, then the British fighter may need to work his way to the No.1 mandatory spot with the WBC. At best, I think it could take 2-3 years before Chisora gets a title shot against Wilder if he chooses to wait for him to take the No.1 spot. Chisora will be 35 or 36 by that point.
Whether Chisora gets a title shot against Wilder will also depend on him winning. The last time I checked, Chisora has lost 2 out of his last 3 fights. In other words, Chisora can’t be counted on to win on a consistent basis when he fights actual contenders. The good news for Chisora is his next opponent Helenius isn’t a contender. He’s a former contender, who was recently knocked out by Johann Duhaupas in the 4th round last year in April. The 6’6 ½” Helenius is a beatable guy. He was out of the ring for 2 years from 2013 to 2015. Helenius also was out of action for 11 months following his win over Chisora in December 2011.
When Helenius did return to the ring against journeyman Sherman Williams in November 2012, he looked awful in winning a listless 10 round decision. Helenius was staggered at one point in that fight. Ever since the Chisora fight, Helenius has looked terrible. All I can think is the time out of the ring combined with his shoulder injury he suffered against Chisora might have eroded Helenius’ skills. We’re talking about a fighter that has been out of the ring 3 years out of the last 5 years of his career. When you miss that much time in your career, it’s hard to keep yourself at the level where you were at before.
Chisora needs to fight smart against Helenius in the rematch, because his fighting style just isn’t working when he faces decent level opposition. Chisora throws too many wide shots that are easily picked off on the gloves of his opponents. It would be in Chisora’s best interest to start throwing straight shots up the middle if he wants to stop losing all the time. His wide shots are getting him nowhere. Chisora’s 2 losses to Tyson Fury were a perfect example of how easily his archaic fighting style can be nullified.
All Fury did was keep his guard up high to block Chisora’s wide shots all night long. Fury also did a little bit of leaning back on the ropes to keep his head out of range of Chisora’s looping shots. You can bet that Helenius will have studied the Fury-Chisora fights well, and will be using a similar style as Fury when he gets Chisora inside the ring with him on May 27. The venue favors Helenius. Unless Chisora can knock him out, I see him losing another decision no matter how well he does.