By Tim Royner: Eddie Hearn is counting on putting together a fight between former WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker (25-2, 19 KOs) and former world title challenger Dereck Chisora (29-9, 21 KOs) to add to Dillian Whyte’s card on April 20 at the O2 Arena in London, England. Also on the card will be domestic level heavyweight David Allen (16-4-2, 13 KOs) facing former WBA World heavyweight champion Lucas ‘Big Daddy’ Browne (27-1, 24 KO).
Chisora, 35, was knocked out in the 11th round by Whyte last December at the O2 Arena. Chisora was giving Whyte all he could handle through the first 10 rounds when all of a sudden the referee jumped in and penalized Dereck for throwing an elbow in the 11th. Chisora lost his concentration after the point deduction, and started swinging wildly.
Whyte took advantage of Chisora losing his cool by dropping him with a left hook to the head. The fight was stopped moments later by referee Marcus McDowell. As long as Chisora is able to put the mental baggage of what happened to him out of his mind for the Parker fight, he should be fine. But if Chisora is still upset at what some boxing fans felt was the referee singling him out for point deductions while ignoring the A-side fighter Whyte for his own fouling, he could fall victim for a second knockout loss in a row when he meets up with the 27-year-old Parker on April 20, if that fight gets made.
Parker, 6’4″, is a better puncher than Whyte so it would be in Chisora’s best interest to try and ignore the hurts from the past, and focus on what he can learn from the fight. Not getting upset is key. Chisora has to fight smart if he wants to beat Parker, because he’s a bigger puncher than Whyte, and he does a lot of things better than him. If Chisora goes into that fight angry, and swinging wildly, because he’s still upset about what happened in his last fight, Parker will knock him out quickly.
Parker will likely be too young, too strong and too skills for Chisora. However, with the fight taking place in the UK, anything is possible. You can’t count your chickens before their hatched if your Parker. On paper, Parker should easily beat the slow-moving Chisora, but there’s always a chance of a controversial decision or a premature stoppage along the way. Parker had bad luck in his unification fight against Anthony Joshua last year in March at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. That was a fight where the referee Giuseppe Quartarone prevented both fighters from mixing it up on the inside. This greatly helped the taller 6’6″ Joshua, cause he was able to keep the action on the outside where he had the reach advantage. When the two were at close quarters, Parker was taking advantage of Joshua’s slow hands, and his inability to fight on the inside. However, the referee put a stop to the inside fighting by continually pulling the two fighters apart when Parker would work his way to the inside to take advantage of Joshua’s lack of inside skills. After a while, Parker gave up entirely in trying to fight on the inside, and this enabled Joshua to jab him the remainder of the fight to win a dull 12 round decision.
Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn is hoping to setup a fight between Whyte (25-1, 18 KOs) and Dominic Breazeale (20-1, 18 KOs) on the April 20 card on Sky Box Office. With the Whyte-Breazeale fight being shown on PPV, there’s a chance that Hearn can lure the 33-year-old Breazeale into taking it. Breazeale is already the mandatory challenger to World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Deontay ‘Bronze Bomber’ Wilder. Dominic doesn’t need to do anything to get his mandated title shot against the winner of the Wilder vs. Tyson Fury 2 rematch. Breazeale will get that shot as long as he waits for the two to face each other in the first half of 2019. For Breazeale to put that title shot on the line in a risky fight against Whyte in the UK, it doesn’t sound like a smart risk unless Hearn is going to throw massive money at him to make it worthwhile if he loses a controversial decision or if the fight gets suddenly stopped prematurely by the referee.
If Breazeale turns down Hearn’s offer for a fight against Whyte, then the next two options for Dillian is former WBA heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin and Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz. Those are the two that Hearn has mentioned as guys that he’d like to put in with Whyte on April 20. If Hearn can’t get either of those guys for whatever reasons, then it could be a lesser opponent for Whyte. Luis Ortiz’s name was mentioned by Hearn, but that’s a guy that likely has no real chance of getting the fight with Whyte. Ortiz is someone that could even beat Joshua, so that makes him the equivalent of the third rail when it comes to getting selected by Hearn. It’s not in Hearn’s best interest for Whyte to be beaten by anyone before he makes the Joshua-Whyte 2 rematch.
The problem with Hearn selecting a weak no name fighter is the fight card is going to be shown on SKy Box Office. Whyte can’t bring in the PPV buys on Sky Box Office if he continues to fight journeyman level fighters. He’s got to step up against a good heavyweight, and the officiating needs to improve as well. Whyte’s last two fights against Chisora and Parker have seen the referees make calls or not make calls that has seemingly helped him. It’s obviously a coincidence. The referee that worked the Whyte-Parker fight gave Whyte credit for a knockdown when he clashed heads with Parker in round 2. The same referee fails to take points away from Whyte when he started roughing Parker up. The referee that worked the Whyte-Chisora 2 fight twice took points way from Chisora for fouls during key moments during the match. Whyte was also fouling, and the referee didn’t take points away from him. You’d like to see the referee make calls both ways if they start taking points away for fouling rather than letting one guy have it repeatedly in taking points off, while ignoring the other guy’s fouls. It kind of taints the win.
Hearn is also hoping to put a fight together between 2012 U’S Olympian Michael Hunter (16-1, 11 KOs) and former heavyweight world title challenger Carlos Takam (36-5-1, 28 KOs) for the April 20th Whyte card at the O2. That’s a fight is a toss-up, if it gets made.
Takam, 38, used to be a major player in the heavyweight division, but recent knockout losses to Chisora and IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua has dampened his flame, and he’s now starting to look like a journeyman like Chisora. Further, Takam is getting up there in age, and his style of fighting isn’t cut out for a long career in the sport. Still, Takam was getting the better of Chisora through the first seven rounds of their recent fight before getting caught in the 8th and knocked out last July. Takam came back from that loss to defeat little known heavyweight Senad Gashi by a 7th round knockout last December. That’s the type of heavyweight that Takam can win. At this point of Takam’s career, he’s probably not capable of beating the likes of Hunter, which could be the reason why Hearn wants to make that fight.