How Chisora can beat Wladimir Klitschko

By Boxing News - 10/25/2010 - Comments

Image: How Chisora can beat Wladimir KlitschkoBy Dave Lahr: Okay, so I’ve taken a look a number of Dereck Chisora’s fights and I’ve got to admit that he’s really got his work cut out for him against IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko on December 11th. Unlike Samuel Peter and Shannon Briggs, the 26-year-old Chisora has a lot less physical tools to work with than those two fighters. Chisora doesn’t have the big power that both Briggs and Peter have working for them, and he doesn’t have much in the way of hand speed and height either. Peter wasn’t that tall and fast, but he more than made up for it with his huge power.

Chisora doesn’t have speed, power or size. Okay, but I didn’t notice that Chisora does a great job of pressuring his opponents and forcing them to fight at a much faster pace than their used to. Chisora doesn’t allow them to take any breathers. This really had a withering effect on Chisora’s last opponent Sam Sexton in September. Sexton was doing a number on Chisora through the first seven rounds, but Chisora wore him down and was able to take Sexton out when he attempted to clinch him in the 9th round. Instead of just allowing Sexton the rest break, Chisora kept pounding him with his free right hand until he had Sexton out on his feet and the referee then stopped the fight. This is what Chisora has to do to Wladimir.

I think it can work as long as Chisora uses a lot of head movement and stays low to keep out of the way of Wladimir’s jabs and left hooks. Wladimir has already been stopped by journeyman Ross Purity, a pressure fighter who wore Wladimir down and stopped him in the 11th round 12 years ago in 1998. Purity, 6’3″ 250, had some advantages that Chisora doesn’t have in terms of being a huge puncher with either hand and having a much better jab as well, and long reach of 80″. Chisora’s reach is only 74″, which is going to be giving Wladimir around a six inch reach advantage.

It doesn’t matter as long as Chisora ducks under Wladimir’s jab and gets in close so that he can land his power shots on the inside. Wladimir will obviously be trying to tie Chisora up, but that’s okay. Chisora just needs to fight through the clinch and keep nailing Wladimir with hard shots while being held. If Chisora does this enough, Wladimir won’t dare try to clinch him anymore. One thing that Chisora needs to change is his tendency to throw a lot of body shots in close. He needs to forget about going to Wladimir’s body and focus on his punches upstairs to try and tag the Ukrainian’s tender chin.

Chisora can’t waste his efforts going to the body, because this will leave him open to Wladimir’s hard hooks and uppercuts. You don’t want a hard puncher like Wladimir to have too many chances to connect, and this is why Chisora needs to try and take him out as fast as possible before Wladimir can connect with one of his own his own big shots.



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