By Scott Gilfoid: WBA International heavyweight champion Dereck Chisora (19-4, 13 KO’s) defeated Ondrej Pala (32-4, 22 KO’s) by a 3rd round TKO on a beautiful rabbit punch to the back of the head when Pala turned his back after falling into the ropes at the Copper Box Arena, in London, UK.

The referee Jan Christensen, instead of stopping the action to get Pala turned around after he slipped into the ropes, he halted the fight and gave Chisora a stoppage win. It was pretty sad to watch but I wasn’t surprised at all. I thought it was an atrocious job by the referee in not turning Pala around and warning Chisora about his rabbit punches.

Pala hurt Chisora on at least three occasions in the fight with big left hooks to the head. Chisora had to back off each time he was hurt. If this had been a good heavyweight he had been in with it’s hard to imagine Chisora making it out of the first couple of rounds. He just seemed very susceptible each time he was hit hard.

Chisora captured the vacant WBA International heavyweight title.

After the fight, Chisora’s promoter Frank Warren mentioned wanting to match Chisora against Tyson Fury if possible. Fury easily beat Chisora two years ago by a lopsided 12 round decision. It’s hard to imagine seeing Chisora doing any better in a rematch against Fury after seeing how vulnerable Chisora looked tonight.

I hate to say it but this stoppage was even funnier than the one where the referee halted the fight on the count of 9 in Chisora’s 6th round TKO win over Malik Scott last July in London. Scott gets up at the count of 9, and referee wordlessly stops the fight after the count of 9 with Scott on his feet. Just so, so sad.

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