By John F. McKenna (McJack): In his fight with 6’9”, 255 ½ pound rising star Tyson Fury (15-0, 10 KO’s) on July 23, BBBC/CBC heavyweight titleholder Dereck Chisora (14-1, 9 KO’s) came in weighing a ponderous 261 pounds. Chisora stands at 6’ ½” and even though Fury is 8 ½” taller than him, Chisora outweighed him. It is hard to imagine what Chisora was thinking of in the lead up to the fight with Fury, which was held at Wembley Arena.

Chisora had been scheduled to fight Heavyweight Champion Wladimir Klitschko last December, but the fight had to be cancelled when Wladimir suffered an injury to his abdominal muscles. The fight was then rescheduled for April 2011 but again the fight was cancelled when the fight between David Haye and Vladimir Klitschko was finally nailed down for July 2, 2011.

After “Dr. Steelhammer’s” one sided win over Haye, Klitschko started thinking about his next opponent. Klitschko let it be known that the winner of the Chisora – Fury fight was a real possibility. Although it was not yet written in stone the winner of Chisora – Fury was the most logical and made the most sense as an opponent for Vladimir. After all, with both of the Klitschko brothers trolling for opponents, there are not a lot worthy opponents
out there for the Brothers.

The question boxing fans and writers are asking is what would possess a fighter with Dereck Chisora’s ability to come into the ring flabby and so out of condition for such an important fight? Chisora had the inside track to land a heavyweight championship title fight and he let it all slip away because for whatever reason he chose to show up out of shape.

The heavyweight title is one of the most lucrative prizes in all of sports. It brings with it endorsements and financial rewards that are hard to fathom for lower level fighters. One does not have to look back very far to see that Dereck Chisora is not the first fighter on the fringe of success not to take advantage of his talent. As recently as last March Odlanier Solis, while not as flabby as Chisora was not in the best of condition when Vitali Klitschko took him out in the first round. Solis became very defensive when he was criticized before the Klitscko fight stating that he could do more sit ups than anyone he knew. Not exactly what a boxing trainer wants to hear. Sure Solis suffered a knee injury after he received the temple shot and toppled backwards to the canvas. The fact that Odlanier was overweight however may have contributed to the severity of his injury.

Go back to Chris Arreola when he fought Vitali Klitschko in September 2009. Chris was clearly 25 to 30 pounds overweight, but he insisted that he was at the best weight for him. To Arreola’s credit he finally got the message and has trimmed off the excess baggage around the middle in his most recent fights.