By William Lloyd: Derek Chisora feels that the Joe Joyce vs. Carlos Takam fight shouldn’t have been stopped in the sixth round last Saturday night in London. Chisora says Takam, 40, should have been given a standing eight count and allowed to continue fighting in his match against Joyce at the SSE Arena in Wembley.
Some boxing fans agree with Chisora, believing that Takam should have been allowed to continue. To be sure, many of Joyce’s punches were arm punches, and Takam was doing a reasonable job of making them miss.
On the opposite side, it looked like Takam was taking a shellacking from Joyce after being staggered by a massive left hand at the beginning of the round.
Takam never showed any signs of recovering after getting nailed by a perfectly placed left hand from Joyce.
The referee Steve Gray stopped the contest after Takam (39-6-1, 28 KOs) took many unanswered heavy blows from Joyce (13-0, 12 KOs) in round six after being hurt at the start of the sixth round.
Chisora disagrees with Takam stoppage
“Pathetic, give the guy a count. Don’t just stop the fight. Joe [Joyce] was losing every round,” said Derek Chisora to Behind The Gloves on his thoughts on Joyce’s stoppage win over Takam in the sixth last Saturday.
“But you know what? It’s a Frank Warren show; it’s a BT show. The ref [Steve Gray] was inside and seen what’s happening, but from the outside, I thought it was a stupid stoppage.
“But maybe the ref knows better. If you look at something in slow motion, it’s going to look so horrible,” Chisora said when told that Takam wasn’t throwing any punches back.
“If I put it in slow motion, ‘Whoa, why did he do that?’ It’s slow motion. It looks very obvious in slow motion. Listen, Joe was losing every round.
“From what I saw, he [Joyce] lost six rounds. But I said to my buddy, ‘Yeah, Joe is going to lose the first eight rounds, but something is going to happen, and he’s going to win the fight.’ He won the fight, and that’s it,” Chisora said.
Takam didn’t look like he was in good shape after getting hurt by Joyce’s booming left hook at the start of the sixth.
Takam wasn’t throwing anything back at Joyce, and the referee had no choice but to stop the contest to prevent injury. Looking at the final sequence in slow motion, Takam was in bad shape, taking blows and unable or unwilling to throw anything back.
He later said after the fight that he was waiting for Joyce to stop throwing punches to begin opening up with his own offense.
The thing is, Joyce wasn’t going to stop throwing punches. He has one of those engines where he can literally throw nonstop blows without gassing.
Joyce being mandatory means “NOTHING”
“Becoming a mandatory means nothing in this game, to be honest,” Chisora said in reacting to Joyce being the WBO mandatory to champion Anthony Joshua.
“It’s all about what belts are worth more money. Are they worth more money in Joe’s hand or in Usyk and AJ?
“So far, they’re worth more in Usyk and AJ, not in Joe’s hands. AJ,” Chisora said when asked who he favors in the Joshua vs. Oleksandr Usyk fight on September 25th.
“He’s [Joshua] going to knock him out, but he’s going to have to go through hell to knock him out,” said Chisora.
It does mean a lot that Joyce is the WBO mandatory, as he’s guaranteed a title shot against whoever holds the belt in a year or so. With that said, Joyce will need to wait until the Anthony Joshua vs. Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury vs. Deontay Wilder III fights to play out before he can potentially get a title shot.
The winners of those two fights are expected to battle in early 2022, and we could see an immediate rematch.
If it goes down like that, Joyce may need to until late 2022 or, more likely early 2023, before he gets a chance to fight for the WBO belt.
It wouldn’t be surprising if the WBO belt is vacated, which means Joyce would be fighting the highest-ranked contender in the WBO’s rankings for the vacant strap..
Chisora to fight Parker next, NO interest in Joyce
“No, BT can’t afford me,” said Chisora when asked if he’d be interested in fighting Joe Joyce.
“David [Haye] is doing his thing right now. We’re still in touch, we’re still friends,” said Chisora about him and manager David Haye parting ways recently. “We talk every day. He said if I ever need anything, just call and ask him for advice, which is good.
“We’re going to a Joseph Parker rematch right now, and I’m back with [trainer] Dave Coldwell.
“We’ll be up in Sheffield for my rematch. We don’t know yet [when the rematch with Parker will take place]. We’re trying to sort out the money situation.
“If DAZN is watching and Sky is watching, give me the money. Put up. DAZN came with the big slap bringing so much money to the game.
“Now they said they don’t have money. They have to pay, baby. DAZN, Eddie [Hearn], pay,” said Chisora.
As bad as both Chisora and Parker looked in their May 1st fight in Manchester, you can’t blame DAZN if they choose not to put down a lot of money for a rematch.
The fan interest in watching those two battle again isn’t there. Both guys looked shot to pieces, and it wasn’t great television to watch them battle in slow motion.
Chisora was exhausted after the first round and fought with his mouth open. If Parker had been able to muster a sustained attack from the second round on, he would have stopped Chisora. As exhausted as Chisora was, he looked highly vulnerable at all times.
Parker was shockingly poor, making you wonder if he’s nearing the end of his career. If a good heavyweight like Frank Sanchez had been in there with Chisora, he likely would have stopped him within three rounds. The fact that Parker couldn’t do the job on Chisora shows how little he has left as a fighter.
It’s not a shock that Chisora has no interest in fighting Joyce because it’s a bad style match-up for him. Moreover, the money wouldn’t be to his liking.
At this point in Chisora’s career, he looks done as a fighter, and he’s no longer capable of beating top 10 contenders.
He looked terrible in losing his last fight against former WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker by a 12 round split decision last May.
You can argue the only reason it wasn’t a worse outcome for Chisora is because of how timid and past it Parker looked.
This wasn’t the prime Parker that we’d seen during his years between 2015 to 2018. He’s clearly lost something from his game, and he looked like a shell of his former self in his fight with Chisora.