By Scott Gilfoid: EBU heavyweight champion Dereck Chisora (18-4, 12 KO’s) has an easy defense of his title coming next month against the little known 6’6 1/2″ Italian fighter Matteo Modugno (14-0, 8 KO’s) at the Copper Box Arena, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Hackney Wick, in London, United Kingdom.
This is a huge, huge mismatch due to Modugno not having any power whatsoever to make this a competitive fight. Modugno isn’t a world ranked contender, and as far as the European Boxing Union rankings go, he’s not even ranked in the top 15 by their organization.
Modugno may not have a loss on his resume, but he totally blown out by Oleksandr USYK in WSB competition. Usyk dropped Modugno with a straight left hand early in the fight and the was stopped with Modugno on the canvas. Also, former Italian Olympian Clemente Russo dropped Modugno hard in a sparring session filmed on Youtube. Modugno got back to his feet but he was definitely rocked by the much shorter Clemente, who is more of a cruiserweight than a heavyweight.
It’s hard to say what Chisora hopes to get from being a 2nd tier fighter like Modugno. I mean, Modugno isn’t ranked in the EBU’s top 15 nor the World rankings, so why is Chisora fighting him? It looks like a huge step down from Chisora’s last fight against Edmund Gerber, which was a huge step down from his fight before that against Malik Scott.
That fight was a huge step down from Chisora’s fight against David Haye. So what it looks like is Chisora has jammed his career in reverse mode and has kept it there for all of 2013.
If Chisora wants to burn up portions of his career fighting less than dangerous opposition then that’s on him. But if he thinks wins over Scott, Gerber, Hector Alfredo Avila and Modugno will get him a world title shot against one of the Klitschkos, then he’s kidding himself.
It won’t get Chisora that fight, and it likely won’t get him pushed up the world rankings. Chisora needs to dump the EBU strap and start fighting some quality opposition again.
I know it was probably painful when Chisora was schooled by Tyson Fury, destroyed by Haye and beaten by Vitali Klitschko and Robert Helenius, but that’s no reason for Chisora to take his career in the retreat mode to an earlier elementary level. It’s so sad to see what Chisora has done to his career. Can you imagine Haye deciding after his loss that he needs to fight the likes of Gerber, Modugno, Avila and Malik Scott? Haye wouldn’t waste his career doing that.
It’s like someone going back to the beginnings to try and do better the second time when it’s clearly too late for that. Chisora is 29, and he doesn’t have a lot of time for him to be wasting the likes of Gerber and Modugno types. Chisora is a short, round body without a lot of height and reach. Those type of fighters don’t tend to last long in their careers because they lack the size to compete against the taller heavyweights. This is why it makes no sense for Chisora to be taking on 2nd tier guys like Modugno. If the idea is for Chisora to stay as the EBU champion for as long as humanely possible, then I can definitely see the logic in taking on Modugno. He’s no threat to Chisora and an easy mark. I rate Modugno as below EBU contenders like Martin Rogan.
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