By Charles Brun: Promoter Frank Warren reports that there will be a “historic night of boxing” event in Saudi Arabia on December 23rd. It’s believed this will be in Riyadh.
Warren isn’t saying on the card, but there are rumors that Dereck Chisora will be fighting Francis Ngannou in the main event, which will please British fans but turn off U.S. fans.
Other names are being mentioned as potentially fighting on the December 23rd card in Saudi, but NOT against Ngannou. Here’s a small list:
Joe Joyce
Zhilei Zhang
Martin Bakole
Joseph Parker
Deontay Wilder
The 39-year-old Chisora (34-13, 23 KOs) has openly called for the fight against the ex-UFC heavyweight champion Ngannou (0-1) since his loss to Tyson Fury last October.
Hopefully, this abomination of a fight doesn’t occur because it’s such a waste of Ngannou’s talent to sink to this level of opponent after his controversial loss to Tyson Fury on October 28th.
If they want to feed the shark-like Ngannou an interesting opponent, why not Arslanbek Makhmudov, Filip Hrgovic, Martin Bakole, or Fabio Wardley?
“It’s going to feature boxers from all over the world. You will be surprised by the names. There are some great fights involving British fighters, too,” said Frank Warren to talkSport Boxing about a card on December 23rd.
“It will be massive. Everything’s going in the right direction for a historic night of boxing.”
Instead of Ngannou fighting Chisora, he should be taking on Oleksandr Usyk or Anthony Joshua in a big-money fight or rematching Fury.
This is a dreadful fight of the worst order, but oh well. If this is what the Saudis want, it’ll happen because the event is being staged in their country.
Chisora was a decent bottom-of-the-barrel-type fringe contender during his prime 13 years ago, when he was a useful opponent for Vitali Klitschko, David Haye, Tyson Fury & Robert Helenius, losing to all of them.
In the last seven years, the bottom has dropped out of Chisora’s game, as he’s slowed down and taken loss after loss and looked worse than horrible. There are no words to describe how poor Chisora has looked, but the odd thing is, he still keeps getting opportunities for main event fights.
How on earth does that happen? It’s just weird, but it shows how British promoters and fans don’t give up on their fighters, even when they’re completely shot and ready to be put out to pasture.
Chisora, who has lost four out of his last six fights, feels he’s the ideal guy for Ngannou to fight. Hardcore fans, the ones that would most likely be interested in watching the December 23rd event
