By Scott Gilfoid: Dereck Chisora (26-7, 18 KOs) is in the position to get a title shot against WBC heavyweight champion Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder (37-0, 36 KOs) if he can win his fight next month against #12 IBF Robert Helenius (24-1, 15 KOs) on May 27 at the Hartwall Arena in Helsinki, Finland. The winner of the Chisora-Helenius fight will be getting a crack at Deontay; at least that’s what promoter Kalle Sauerland is saying.
It’s pretty interesting that one of these guys will be allowed to fight for a world title, because both have been beaten recently. Chisora, 33, lost his last fight to Dillian Whyte last December. It was a 12 round split decision, but Chisora still lost.
“Del Boy V Helenius…. winner takes on Deontay Wilder. Going to be some night in Hell-sinki,” said Kalle Sauerland on his Twitter.
So there it is. The winner of the Chisora vs. Helenius fight gets a title shot against Deontay for his WBC title. Is it fair that the winner of a fight between 2 aging fringe contenders should get a title shot against Wilder? That’s for the boxing fans to decide. I think it’s incredibly odd. It makes perfect sense for the winner of this fight to be fighting Deontay in an upside down world where you get world title shots after you’ve been recently beaten.
Chisora has lost 2 out of his last 3. Why would be getting a title shot so soon after that many defeats is the magical question. Looking at it from a logical perspective, a win for Chisora over Helenius should give him a bottom 15 ranking with the World Boxing Council in my opinion.
I don’t see Chisora as deserving of a #10 ranking with the WBC. When you lose 2 out of your last 3 fights, you can argue that a fighter doesn’t deserve to be rated in the top 15. As for Helenius, he was knocked out in the 6th round by Johann Duhaupas last year in April 2015. Duhaupas isn’t a big puncher. Helenius has won his last 2 fights, but he’s done it against journeyman in Konstantin Airich (23-17) and Gonzalo Omar Basile 68-11).
Chisora fought for a world title 5 years ago against WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko in 2012 What was REALLY interesting about Chisora getting a title shot against Vitali back then was Chisora had lost 2 out of his last 3 fights going into the title shot, and that he was a fringe contender in the WBC’s rankings JUST like he is now. It’s like we’re seeing history repeat itself. As I mentioned, Chisora has lost 2 out his last 3 fights in defeats against Dillian Whyte and Kubrat Pulev, but he’s still on the verge of getting another world title shot. I don’t understand it.
Chisora and Helenius will be fighting for the vacant WBC Silver heavyweight title on May 27. That trinket is less important than the winner getting a title shot against Wilder.
Anthony Joshua and Wladimir Klitschko talk about their sparring session from 2014
It’s been 3 years since former heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko and Anthony Joshua sparred with each other for 20 rounds in 2014. Wladimir was getting ready for a title defense against Kubrat Pulev, and he had the 6’6” Joshua in his game to help get prepared for the size of the 6’4 ½” Pulev. According to Wladimir, the sparring sessions with Joshua was competitive with both landing shots.
Wladimir says neither guys got the better of each other. It’s important to know this because Wladimir (64-4, 53 KOs) will be squaring off with Joshua this month in 10 days from now on April 29 at Wembley Stadium in London, England.
”It was just sparring, I wasn’t trying to prove anything,” said Joshua to skysports.com about his sparring with Wladimir in 2012.
Wladimir’s take on the sparring session was a little bit different from Joshua. Wladimir says he learned from the sparring session what to expect from Joshua inside the ring. To be honest, Wladimir probably didn’t need to spar with Joshua to know what to expect from him, because he fights the same way every time. Joshua tends to push a slow jab in front of him as a range finder. He’ll push a fight hand to try and stun his opponents.
Joshua punches aren’t very fast, but it doesn’t matter because he hasn’t fought a lot of guys with defensive skills or very good chins. Once Joshua hurts his opponents, he bum rushes them and quickly takes them out with a flurry of activity. Joshua looks sloppy as heck when he finishing off his opponents, but it doesn’t matter. Joshua’s opponents are generally so out of it by that point that they don’t have their senses about them take advantage of his reckless attacks.
”We were pretty competitive. We respect each other, but both competitive. There was no dominance from either of us. It was pretty equal,” said Wladimir to skysports.com about how things went in his sparring with Joshua ”We’ve exchanged lots of shots, so he knows what to expect and I do too,” said Wladimir.
It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to realize what Wladimir has to do to beat Joshua. He can either follow the blueprint created by Mihai Nistor, Erislandy Savon and Roberto Cammarelle in how to beat Joshua or he can use the blueprint Ivan Dychko used to get the better of him. Nistor, Savon and Cammarelle used in and out attacks to pound Joshua with 3-4 punch combinations. Joshua was always good to block the first punch, but he was helpless for the immediate follow up shots. For his part, Dychko used his long jab to pound Joshua and keep from getting hit on the outside.
Nistor did a great job of stopping Joshua in their fight in 2011. Nistor really had Joshua’s number in that fight. It was pretty impressive. I just don’t know if Wladimir is capable of throwing combinations. He’s more of a one punch at a time type of fighter. For Wladimir to learn how to fight like Nistor, he would have to change his fighting style completely, and I’m not sure that he can do that at age 41. You know the old saying, ‘old dogs can’t learn new tricks.’ Wladimir isn’t a dog, but he’s definitely up there in age, isn’t he?