By William Lloyd: Trainer Dave Coldwell says heavyweight contender Dereck Chisora isn’t ready to retire after his loss to Joseph Parker last weekend. Coldwell says the 37-year-old Chisora (32-12, 23 KOs) is already looking forward to fighting in 2022.

The former world title challenger Chisora was knocked down three times and lost by the surprisingly close scores of 114-112, 115-111, and 115-110.

Promoter Eddie Hearn hasn’t said yet who he would have in mind for Chisora to be fighting next, but it’ll likely need to be a well-known top-tier heavyweight for him to continue to headline shows in the UK.

Boxing fans won’t be interested in purchasing tickets to watch Chisora fight guys like Dave Allen, and it’s unlikely that DAZN would agree to show an apparent mismatch in a headliner.

Chisora is not ready to retire

“Ultimately, it’s Derek’s decision,” Coldwell said to Sky Sports. ”

“He loves fighting, and he’ll let people know what he’s going to do, but he’s already talking about looking forward to 2022.”

“It was unbelievable. He was just phenomenal, he really was,” continued Coldwell about Chisora. “I thought Derek did really well; he smashed his body to bits and really made it tough and hard for Parker.

“Every time you thought Derek was in real trouble, he came blazing back. An unbelievable performance from Derek Chisora, and he was competitive all the way through. He made Parker work for every second of that fight,” said Coldwell.

Chisora was able to come back after being hurt because Parker would either punch himself out or lose his nerve and look scared of trying to finish him.

Just by Chisora walking unsteadily to a corner and waiting for Parker each time he was hurt, it was enough to cause the New Zealander to hesitate. Ultimately, that bought Chisora the time he needed to escape each time he was hurt.

Hearn: Chisora is the toughest man on the planet

Dereck showed good recuperative powers in coming back each time Parker hurt him, but it’s evident that if a fighter were in there with better stamina and the killer instinct, Chisora would have been finished off the first time he was hurt in the fight.

Against a good heavyweight with conditioning and the ability to finish hurt opponents, Chisora would have been knocked out as early as the fourth round. The fact that Chisora went the 12 round distance is a sign of how badly flawed Parker is rather than a testament to Dereck’s toughness.

“It was a brilliant heavyweight fight and a great performance from Joseph Parker, and he needed it. You know, he needed a performance like that. He needed to be conditioned like that because Chisora is a nightmare. How tough is he?” said Eddie Hearn to Matchroom Boxing in reacting to Parker’s win over ‘War’ Chisora.

“I mean, at what point do you realize that if you dip down, you’re going to eat an uppercut,” Hearn said of Chisora. “He ate 500 of them tonight.

“How that fight went 12 rounds, I do not know. The toughness of Dereck Chisora, and if Joseph wasn’t conditioned like he was, if he wasn’t spiteful as he was, he would have got beat down the straight because Chisora would have made many fold in there tonight,” Hearn said

“Joseph came out really spiteful as we thought he would, and it was a really good performance from him. And, of course, massive respect to Dereck Chisora, who is arguably the toughest man on the planet,” said Hearn.

Dereck warned the referee

The referee Howard Foster gave Chisora a HUGE break by not stopping the fight during the ninth round when Parker was hammering him with repeated left hooks to the head when he was against the ropes.

Chisora was hit hard with at ten headshots in a row without throwing anything back, and it was clear that the fight needed to be stopped.

In typical situations, referees stop fights when a fighter is as visibly hurt and taking repeated headshots the way Chisora was in the ninth.

You can argue if the fight hadn’t been in the UK, the referee would have stopped the fight to save Chisora from taking further punishment. The battle’s location likely played into the decision not to wave it off.

“He [Chisora] would back into the corner every time he got hurt,” said Hearn about ‘War’ Chisora. “He’s been doing that virtually his whole career, and look to pot shot Joseph Parker and launch his own attack.

“In fact, I think it was the eighth or ninth round where he looked like he was going to get stopped, maybe the tenth, and [referee] Howard Foster looked like he was going to jump in.

“Chisora actually looked at Howard Foster and said, ‘Don’t you dare.’ He was waiting to try and land something. He didn’t stop trying, and that’s the sign of a real warrior.

“Someone that’s prepared to go out on their shield, and someone that is prepared to get carried out of the ring, but will not stop trying to win, and that’s why people love Dereck Chisora,” Hearn said.

Chisora wants to go again in Spring

If Chisora is going to fight in the Spring, Hearn needs to scale back the level of opposition that he matches him against. With three defeats in a row, it’s evident that Chisora cannot beat the top-five competition.

What Hearn needs to do is to match Chisora against a contender ranked from 10 to 15 because he can probably still beat those kinds of fighters, as long as he doesn’t continue to gas out and get hurt by uppercuts.

These would be good options for Chisora:

Hughie Fury
Martin Bakole
Murat Gassiev
Mark De Mori
Efe Ajagba
Ali Eren Demirezen
Michael Hunter.
Demsey McKean
Zhang Zhilei

“There will come a stage where you’ll say, ‘These fights are too tough.’ Maybe that’s now,” said Hearn about Chisora. “I just saw him there, and he said, ‘Can we go again in spring?’ I mean, he loves to fight, but he’s losing to top five heavyweights, top ten heavyweights at worst, and he’ll beat so many heavyweights out there.

“He’s involved in all these big fights. As I said, Joseph needed to be at his very best tonight to win that fight,” said Hearn about Parker. “I think he’s in a great position. It’s not just winning.

Winning is great, but winning well in exciting fights means people want to watch you again, means you put more bums on seats, means you can drive more subscriptions. That’s what Joseph Parker did tonight.

Hearn wants Parker to fight Hrgovic

If Hearn gets his way, #4 IBF Parker (30-2, 21 KOs) will take on unbeaten #3 Filip Hrgovic (14-0, 12 KOs) next in an IBF title eliminator to decide the mandatory for IBF heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk.

Hearn will speak to Parker’s manager David Higgins and trainer Andy Lee to see if they’re interested in the idea of taking on the 2016 Olympic super heavyweight bronze medalist Hrgovic.

If not, Hearn would like to match Parker against Deontay Wilder, Andy Ruiz Jr., or Luis Ortiz.

“He won in a great fight. You know, there’s a final eliminator out there with him against Filip Hrgovic to become the mandatory for the IBF world title,” Hearn said of Parker. “There are fights with [Deontay] Wilder; there are fights with [Andy] Ruiz, there are fights with [Luis] Ortiz. There are so many fights out there for him.

“We’ll sit down with [manager] David Higgins, Joseph, and Andy Lee. Andy Lee did a great job with Joseph Parker, and I think if he didn’t do the job that he did, as I said, I think he would have got beat tonight.

“It was one of the best atmospheres I can remember in Britain,” Hearn said about the loud crowd at the Manchester Arena. “We had 10,000 are so in there tonight, and they were brilliant. Everybody was excited to be here. It may you realize how special British boxing is.

“We’re a global business, and we promote all over the world, but there’s nothing like boxing in the UK. Tonight, the atmosphere was sensational, and it deserved an atmosphere like that,” said Hearn.

Parker will need to fight a lot better than he did against Chisora in his last two contests to beat Hrgovic, Ruiz, Ortiz, or Wilder.

Although Parker showed improvement last Saturday night in his rematch with Chisora from their first fight last May, he showed stamina problems and a lack of killer instinct after hurting Dereck on four occasions.