By Craig Daly: Eddie Hearn hasn’t given up on his hopes to make a fight between Derek Chisora and Deontay Wilder next. If that fight doesn’t get made, Hearn says he’d like to match Dillian Whyte against former WBC heavyweight champion Wilder (42-2-1, 41 KOs).
Wilder is expected to return to the ring soon, and he needs an opponent. Hearn thinks Deontay’s management will be looking to match him against a top 15 opponent, and Chisora (33-12, 23 KOs) might be a better option.
A fight between Wilder and Chisora would be huge if it were staged in London. The main problem would be the network issues. Whether the networks would be agreeable to Wilder-Chisora fight taking place is unknown. It’s not big enough of a fight to make a dual network match, however.
Chisora is coming off a big 12-round split decision win over 41-year-old Pulev earlier this month on July 9th. That was a fight that Chisora pulled out in the second half by landing the harder shots. It was close, though, and Chisora fought well down the stretch to get the victory.
“For me, I like the fight; I think it’s a very dangerous fight. I actually think he can win the fight in all honesty, but he could actually get brutally knocked out in that fight,” said Eddie Hearn to iFL TV when asked about a fight between Deontay Wilder and Derek Chisora.
“The other thing I can say is Deontay Wilder is potentially going to fight someone from the top 15. So why shouldn’t it be the guy [Chisora] that just beat Kubrat Pulev?
“There is a chance that Deontay Wilder’s next opponent could be worse. I say, ‘Worse,’ and it’s not a negative thing because Derek Chisora is a top fighter than Derek Chisora. Worse is the wrong word. Not as good as Derek Chisora.
“So why shouldn’t Derek get the opportunity [to fight Wilder]? Derek wants that fight. Derek wants the biggest fight out there. I don’t know what Deontay Wilder is going to do. But if it’s Derek Chisora, it’s between him and his team,” said Hearn.
It’s going to be a huge hurdle for Hearn to make the Wilder vs. Chisora fight because, as I said, the network issues will make it an impossibility. Wilder’s management at PBC will want to make an in-house fight involving one of their heavyweights.
“You talk about the Wilder fight. Dillian Whyte against Wilder is a big fight. We can deliver that in many different countries. We have some huge fights out there for Dillian Whyte globally, so we’ll see what’s next,” said Hearn.
Dillian Whyte (28-3, 19 KOs) is coming off a sixth-round knockout against WBC champion Tyson Fury last April.
