By Scott Gilfoid: Promoter Eddie Hearn seems to be pretty cool on the idea of heavyweight Dereck Chisora facing unbeaten prospect Joe Joyce on the undercard of the Tony Bellew vs. David Haye 2 rematch on May 5th at the O2 Arena in London, England.
Haye says Chisora (27-8, 19 KOs) turned down an offer of $80,000 to take the fight with the 32-year-old Joyce (1-0, 1 KOs) for the 5th of May. Hearn says there’s not a lot for Chisora to gain from that fight. Hearn doesn’t sound eager at all about a potential Chisora vs. Joyce match-up.
One problem that could prevent Chisora from wanting to take the fight against the taller 6’6” Joyce is the fact that he lost his last fight against Agit Kabayel by a 12 round majority decision in November of last year in Monte Carlo. Chisora has lost 2 out of his last 3 fights, and he can ill afford to lose another fight. Chisora has lost 3 out of his last 5 fights since 2016. He says he’s not past it at 34, but it sure looks like it. Chisora can say he’s not over-the-hill, but his resume sure screams out that he’s done as a top level. Being seen as food for a bigger and slightly younger fighter like Joyce can’t be viewed as a good thing for Chisora.
“It’s up to Dereck. He’s a good fighter,” Hearn said about a possible fight between Chisora and Joe Joyce on May 5th.
Hearn isn’t saying who he plans on matching Chisora up against on March 24 on the undercard of Dillian Whyte vs. Lucas ‘Big Daddy’ Browne, but it’s likely that it won’t be anyone that is perceived as a threat to beating him. Chisora wants a rematch with Whyte, and he obviously is hoping he can eventually get a title shot against Anthony Joshua. That means Chisora cannot afford to lose any more fights for the next 1 to 2 years. Even then, Chisora will need to at least beat 1 or 2 top contenders for him to be considered for a title shot against Joshua. I don’t think Chisora has enough left to beat one of the top fighters, but we’ll have to see.
”He turned down 80 grand,” Haye said about Chisora rejecting an offer to fight Joyce on the Bellew-Haye 2 undercard.
Hearn wants Haye to keep offering money to see if Chisora will eventually agree to take the fight with Joyce. I don’t know how much more Haye can offer for him to get Chisora to finally give the green light to taking on Joyce, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s more than what he’s capable of offering.
”You sometimes get a situation like that where a fighter doesn’t have a lot to gain,” Hearn said about Chisora turning down a fight against the 6’6” Joyce. ”With Dereck, it’s like, ‘if he loses to Joe Joyce. If I beat Joe Joyce [there’s nothing to gain.’ He’s fighting on the Dillian Whyte card on the 24th [of March]. Keep offering. We’ll talk. It’s a good fight,” Hearn said.
Chisora does have a lot to gain by beating Joyce. That would be a big win for Chisora, because he would likely be seen as the underdog against the 2016 Olympic silver medalist Joyce whether he wants to admit it or not.
Haye is waiting to get his rematch with Tony Bellew on May 5th, and he feels he’s going to beat him this time.
“I’ll get my revenge,” Haye said.
If Haye can get through the Bellew fight without suffering an injury, he’ll likely beat him by a 12 round decision. Haye was beating Bellew last year in the first 5 rounds before he suffered an Achilles rupture. Things changed after the injury occurred for Haye, as he was forced to limp around the ring.
”The same result,” Bellew’s promoter Eddie Hearn said.
Hearn is counting on Haye suffering another injury. That’s a weak way for a promoter to hope for a win for his fighter. If Bellew doesn’t have the talent to beat Haye when he’s healthy, then that doesn’t say much about him, does it? If the only chance Bellew has of winning the rematch is for Haye coming up lame a second time, it shows you the unlikelihood of him getting the victory.
