By Kenneth Friedman: Dereck Chisora says he’s training himself for his fight in two weeks from now against David Price on October 26 on Sky Box Office at the O2 Arena in London, England. Chisora (31-9, 22 KOs) feels he’s been in the sport long enough to where he no longer needs a coach to put him through his paces, and work his corner during his fights.
Chisora is viewed as the favorite against the 36-year-old Price. For that reason, it’s not as much of a big deal for Chisora to work his own corner, and training himself during camp. If this were Dillian Whyte that Chisora was facing next instead of Price (25-6, 20 KOs), we might see a different viewpoint from Dereck regarding the need for a coach to assist him.
What might be kind of tough for Chisora is the fact that Price is his friend. The two have sparred together a lot in the past, and Chisora says he talked Price out of retirement a few years ago after a loss.
Chisora says Price fight is “just business”
“David Price is one of my close friends in boxing,” said Chisora to secondsout. “When he lost a couple of years ago, I said, ‘You don’t have to retire. Carry on, you never know what’s going to happen.’ Me and my big mouth. It’s just business. He’s got his family, and I’ve got my family. We’re just trying to make money for our families right now. We sparred so many rounds when I was fighting Wlad and Vitali for the first time. He came to Glasgow to help me. It was good rounds,” said Chisora.
Hopefully this fight doesn’t turn into a sparring match or a situation where Chisora purposefully carries Price for 12 rounds. It’s a horrendous match-up as it is, and not worthy of being put on Sky Box Office in the view of many boxing fans. If it’s just going to be a sparring match between two good friends, it’s not going to make for good television.
Chisora doing his own corner and training
“I’m doing my corner. David [Haye] said, ‘you have to get a coach?’ I said, ‘No, I don’t need a coach. I’ve been boxing for years. I know how to train myself. Even on fight night,'” said Chisora. “There’s nothing easy in the heavyweight game, bro. I can come in there and hasn’t boxed in two years, and Wham, it’s a knockout. It’s a hard game. David Price is a big guy. So it’s going to be a good fight.
“I had just finished sparring, and David [Haye] called, and said, ‘I need to talk to you.’ Anytime David calls it’s either bad news or good news. So I said, ‘Give me the bad news first.’ ‘He’s [Joseph Parker] pulled out.’ I said, ‘How long have you known?’ He said, ‘About three days.’ That’s the type of manager that you need. And he keeps all the good secrets to himself. He said, ‘I didn’t want to disrupt your training.’ ‘No, this won’t disrupt me.’ It’s boxing, and it’s happened before. When someone pulls out, that’s money down the drain. I’m just someone has stepped in. So let’s rock and roll,” said Chisora.
It would matter that Chisora is training himself and working out a corner if he were facing someone that could potentially beat him, but that’s not the case. Price has been exposed repeatedly since 2012 that he falls part when he faces pressure fighters or guys that can punch. Chisora can do both, and he’s a total nightmare for someone like Price. With this kind of a mismatch, Chisora doesn’t need a coach.
Dereck expecting Price to be at his best
“I’m expecting a bad a– David Price in this fight. He’s going to be on it,” said Chisora in sounding very much like he’s Price’s coach. “Every fight you take is dangerous. That’s all I can say.”
Price is coming off of a good win over domestic level heavyweight Dave Allen last July, but that fighter is nowhere near the same talent level as Chisora. Price had the right idea of boxing Allen from the outside to win that fight, but he wasn’t getting a lot of resistance.
Chisora will likely walk Price down, and get inside in close to land his power shots. Even Vitali Klitschko wasn’t able to keep Chisora from working his way in range to land big shots. The only tall fighters that did well against Chisora were Kubrat Pulev and Tyson Fury, but those guys are on a much different level than Price.
There’s no mystery about what Price needs to do in order to beat Chisora. You got to jab him a lot, move, and don’t park against the ropes the way Chisora’s last opponent Artur Szpilka did. The problem is, Price can’t do any of those things consistently. He doesn’t move well, his jab is poor, and he likes to fight off the ropes. Price makes the same mistakes fight after fight, and it he pays for it getting knocked out.
Chisora NOT interested in Joe Joyce, says Jarrell Miller is next
“Frank Warren needs to stop saying my name,” said Chisora. “He’s a dinosaur in a young man’s game. There are young promoters out there now. Frank needs to leave the promotion to his kids. His son George is a good promoter. He needs to let George promote. Frank Warren, you need to retire, and go hand out with your grand-kids. The boxing game is not yours anymore. So don’t ever say my name anymore.
“‘I’m not going to fight Joe Joyce. Why am I going to fight Joe Joyce for? I told him off already. When are they going to come back with an offer. When has Frank Warren put on a big show? The last big show Frank Warren put on was with me? And that was it. Yeah, Jarrell Miller is next, 100 percent,” said Chisora.
You can’t fault Chisora for not wanting to fight the 6’6″ Joe Joyce, because that’s a bad match-up for him. Joyce is huge, and he’s got a rock iron chin, and he’s capable of throwing lots of hard power shots for 12 rounds. It would be a terrible match-up for Chisora at any point in his career, but especially now that he’s in his mid-30s. Jarrell Miller is a bad fight for Chisora as well, but at least he has a chance against him due to his inactivity. Miller hasn’t fought since 2018, and he’s probably going to be rusty when he returns to the ring.
