By Brad Slotnick: Derek Chisora says his plan to defeat Joseph Parker on Saturday night is to slowly start breaking him down after the second round until stopping him when they meet in the headliner at the Manchester Arena in Manchester England.
Chisora (32-10, 23 KOs) already has a good idea of the game plan that coach Andy Lee has put together for former WBO heavyweight champion Parker (28-2, 21 KOs), and he doesn’t believe it’ll work.
The underdog Derek, 37, wants to put pressure on pressure on Parker and make him doubt himself when he starts feeling the pain.
Chisora isn’t under any false illusions about this being an easy fight for him, as he knows how dangerous Parker can be.
But once Parker loses his discipline and strays from his game plan after the second round, Chisora feels he’ll take over the fight.
For Chisora, he’s not looking to get a world title shot with a victory over the 29-year-old Parker. In fact, Chisora rejected a WBO title eliminator match, saying that he only wants to fight interesting matches for his fans.
Chisora says that when you become mandatory, it’s boring because the champions make the challengers wait close to two years before they fight them.
Dillian Whyte is an example of a mandatory challenger that has been waiting for years to get a title shot, and it hasn’t happened, Chisora says.
Chisora not interested in a belt
“It’s politics. They choose who they want the belts to go to, they choose who fights for the belts,” said Chisora to Behind The Gloves in explaining why he’s not trying to get a world title shot.
“Dillian Whyte has been the mandatory with the WBC for five years, and he hasn’t boxed for the WBC,” said Chisora. “It’s one of those things where I don’t want to put myself in that position because it’s too long and too boring,” Chisora said.
The problem with the 37-year-old Chisora becoming mandatory, he would be waiting until he’s 39. He might not be in the game by that point, or he would be over-matched if he is.
One of the things the sanctioning bodies need to fix is how champions delay defending against their mandatory challengers.
Chisora turned down the WBO title eliminator
They tell you that you’re the mandatory, but guess what? You have to wait a year and a half to fight. They already called me and said, ‘We’re going to make you an eliminator for the WBO.’ I said, ‘I don’t want it.’ I’d rather fight for the sake of my fans at home.
“I don’t give a f***, and I don’t care. I just want to train and fight. And I do it because I love it. I don’t do it because I want to become #1 for this and this.
“And I want to come in and see the fans sing a song, talking about me, people having the excitement to see me. That’s what I want,” Chisora said.
With the money that Chisora makes fighting on Sky Box Office, there’s less of a need for him to get a title shot to get paid well. It would be different if Chisora weren’t fighting on Sky Box Office. We’d see Chisora pushing hard for a title shot if he weren’t fighting on PPV.
Chisora could soon have problems once Matchroom Boxing’s contract with Sky ends, and they take their fights to DAZN.
Once that happens, Chisora will no longer be fighting on Box Office, which could change things in a negative sense for him.
Retirement not in Chisora’s plans
“People keep telling me to retire,” said Chisora. “If I retire, who is going to fill the gap? First of all, AJ can’t fill the gap because AJ has charisma, but he doesn’t have banter, which I have.
“Tyson [Fury] has banter and says what he says, and Dillian. After I’m gone, it’s difficult. So I prefer staying in the game, doing what I doing, and after, I’ll leave the game when I’m ready to go.
“Come fight night, we’re going to release the pain, we’re going to go,” said Chisora about him and Joseph Parker. “He might come with a different game plan. We’re going to break him. I’m going to feel pain, but he’s going to be feeling more pain than me.
“Myself, I love it,” said Chisora when asked why he fights. “I’m not going to retire and sit on the sofa. I can’t do that. I just love fighting, and I love to train. And I’m doing it for my own happiness and my own sanity,” Chisora said.
Chisora is getting paid too well for him to retire from the sport right now. As long as he can win an occasional fight and entertain his fans, it’s in his best interest to keep fighting.
If Chisora loses the fight to Parker, his next match will likely be against a more winnable opponent. Going from fighting Oleksandr Usyk to facing Parker is pretty tough for Chisora because he’s not getting a break.
But in terms of money, it’s a good thing for Chisora to get consecutive big paydays.
Derek wants a knockout
“I expect him [Parker] to follow the game plan for the first two rounds by [new trainer] Andy Lee, and then afterward, it’s going to get harder for him and get harder for me too because I’m not boxing anybody,” said Chisora.
“I’m fighting a great fighter. So when it gets harder for me, it’s going to get harder for him. He’s going to go to his corner, and he’s going to start doubting himself.
“But we’re going to have to start putting doubts in his head from the get-go. We want a knockout. We want it all,” said Chisora in giving his thoughts about what he wants out of Saturday’s clash with Parker.
Considering that Parker has never been knocked out before, Chisora will have his work cut out for him on Saturday, trying to become the first guy to stop him.
Dillian Whyte showed that Parker could be hurt when he put it on him with a sustained attack early on. But he didn’t have the engine to take him out, and it’s questionable whether Chisora can fight hard enough to stop him.
