By Charles Brun: Joseph Parker’s manager Dave Higgins believes he’s going to send Dereck Chisora into retirement on May 1st when the two battle in the main event on Sky Box Office at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England.
Higgins says he’ll offer Chisora’s manager Dave Haye a job after the fight and let him work for him.
It’s unclear who else Haye manages other than Chisora right now. As such, if Chisora does retire, Haye may be out of business unless Higgins is serious about throwing a bone at him to give him a job.
The 14-year professional Chisora (32-10, 23 KOs) has his work cut out for him in taking on former WBO heavyweight champion Parker (26-2, 21 KOs) in a 12 round fight with a lot riding on it.
Chisora, 37, isn’t exactly coming into the fight under the best of circumstances, as he lost his last fight against Oleksandr Usyk in October of last year.
If Chisora had won that match, he’d be sitting pretty as the WBO mandatory champion Anthony Joshua. Instead, Chisora lost a 12 round unanimous decision, and now he’s in a must-win fight against the 29-year-old Parker on May 1st.
Higgins predicting Parker retires Chisora
“[Chisora] can show up and knock someone out, as he did against Carlos Takam, and so we’ve always got to be wary of that,” Higgins said to Ringside Toe 2 Toe. “But provided that Joseph Parker does not make a silly mistake, and executes his game-plan, then I see him retiring Dereck Chisora.”
It’s entirely possible that Parker could beat Chisora in such a way that he’ll lose his desire to continue his career, but Charles Brun doesn’t see it happening.
Chisora’s situation is kind of murky right now. With Matchroom Boxing signing a five-year deal with DAZN UK, it would appear that Chisora’s fights will no longer be shown on Sky Box Office as they have in the past.
Whether Chisora can still make the same money fighting on DAZN as he did on Sky Box Office is the major question. Moreover, you’d have to suspect that Chisora’s popularity in the UK, such as it is, may plummet rapidly if Parker schools him and/or knocks him out on May 1st.
Will British boxing fans still be interested in seeing Chisora fight after he’s beaten decisively by Parker? We don’t know.
It certainly won’t help Chisora if he’s royally thrashed by Parker, as this isn’t one of the major players in the heavyweight division we’re talking about.
Parker’s star has badly dimmed since his consecutive losses to Joshua and Dillian Whyte in 2018. Losing to Parker will hurt Chisora’s career much more than getting beaten by the likes of Joshua and Tyson Fury.
Last chance saloon for Dereck
Chisora is trying to get a title shot against one of those two champions, which may be his last opportunity to put himself in position.
It’s been nine years since former WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko gave Chisora a voluntary title shot in 2012, which Dereck lost by a lopsided 12 round decision. Vitali fought with just one arm after injuring his left shoulder early in the bout.
The big 6’7″ Ukrainian turned southpaw and used his right hand as a jab to control Chisora the entire fight in what turned out to be a one-sided affair.
“It’s going to need to be a sustained beating, and he’s [Dereck Chisora] going to need to get deep down and dirty,” said David Haye.
“It could be pretty ugly, so I’m hoping he [Parker] wants to stand there,” said Haye about his hope that Parker won’t make the fight a dull one by boxing him.
“I’m hoping he wants to make a statement to the heavyweights out there,” Haye said of Parker. “If he does that, we’ve got ourselves a beautiful showdown.”
Parker has a new trainer in Andy Lee, and it’s believed he’s going to have him using the same roughhouse tactics that we saw from Tyson Fury in his rematch with Deontay Wilder in 2020.
If Parker fights the way that Lee wants him to, he’ll stand in front of Chisora and look to use his size and power to rough him up.