By Allan Fox: Former heavyweight world title challenger Dereck Chisora has hired Buddy McGirt to prepare for his May 1st fight against former WBO champion Joseph Parker.
Now both guys have hired new trainers for this fight, but it’s unclear whether it’ll have any impact on the outcome on May 1st in their headliner on DAZN.
The 29-year-old Parker (28-2, 21 KOs) swapped out his long-time trainer Kevin Barry recently in favor of former middleweight contender Andy Lee.
This was a good move for the 29-year-old Parker, as Lee is a tough Kronk Gym-trained fighter who learned his ropes with legendary coach Emanuel Steward.
Lee was one of the trainers that helped Tyson Fury remake his game, turning into an aggressive brawler for his rematch with Deontay Wilder last year in February.
With Parker’s passive, nice-guy approach to his fights, he needs someone like Lee to change his game so that he’s not getting roughed up by his more aggressive opponents. If Parker had fought with more fire in his fight against Dillian Whyte in 2018, he likely would have beaten him.
The 37-year-old former world title challenger Chisora (32-10, 23 KOs) won’t likely get as much value with McGirt as his trainer as Parker will with Lee. Chisora hasn’t lacked aggression during his career.
His problem is his lack of size and his tendency to run out of gas in the second half of his fights.
In Chisora’s 11th round knockout loss to Whyte in 2018, he let his emotions get away from him after being penalized for using an elbow. Whyte took advantage of Chisora losing his temper, and he clipped him with a big left hook.
Chisora is coming off a close 12 round unanimous decision defeat against Oleksandr Usyk last October. It was a fight that was up for grabs going into the championship rounds, but Chisora faded at the wrong time, allowing Usyk to edge it out at the end.
For his part, Parker looked terrible in his recent 12 round unanimous decision win over Junior Fa on February 27th in Auckland, New Zealand. Parker was sluggish and slowed the entire fight, wrestling with the bigger Fa and not putting his punches together.
For the boxing fans that remembered Parker when he was in his prime back in 2016, he looked nothing like that fighter.
The hand speed and combination punching ability that Parker once had during his best years are now gone. He’s become a traditional plodding heavyweight with no speed, poor stamina, and a heavy emphasis on needing to hold.
Parker would have been viewed as a heavy favorite to defeat Chisora before his recent performance against Junior Fa, but not anymore.
He looked so bad against Fa that it’s impossible to view him as the favorite in the fight despite being eight years younger and having fewer miles on him than Chisora.
Parker and Chisora have an opponent in common in Carlos Takam, both of which were defeated. However, those fights took place too long ago for them to gauge who will win the Parker vs. Chisora fight on May 1st.