Smug? Nah
I said it. On my podcast. Many times. Why?Why make this Fight? Particularly when;
They’ve fought twice before
Fury won both those fights
Fury was asking the ref in the 2nd fight to step in lest he inflict more damage
Chisora is older now
Fury is better now
It smacks of second/third/even 5th best. Particularly after the Anthony Joshua and Oleksandr Usyk non-fights.
I said there was only one outcome, a Fury win. I was right. But it gives me now enjoyment because I also said that boxing and boxing fans deserve more than this; this smacked of a keep busy fight which fans were asked to pay for.
There Were Some Hooks To The Fight
Chisora. Del Boy is loved by boxing fans in this country (we’ll get onto the very UK-centric nature of this World Title Fight later) and he usually sells a boxing match by causing a little trouble. This was different, because Delboy and Tyson have respect for each other, so it was left to Tyson Fury to hype it up.
Chisora was having fun though, even just before the fight, comparing his will to keep boxing with a sexual act and gaining clicks because of it.
And who would complain at Chisora being given another shot? Well, those who wanted AJ or Usyk, plus those, like me; who were worried about warrior Delboy taking more punishment – he’s 38, but in boxing times, he’s older, he was coming off 3 losses and 1 win here, but there were all hard fought.
We like heavyweight boxers to be warriors, don’t we? We don’t like them so much to be ring generals, taking it as a whole match rather than a round by round – look at the curled lips for Lennox Lewis, the ‘pugilist specialist’, and his chess match approach – or some people talking of the brilliant boxer Usyk as if he’s a Middleweight. Chisora fights, he ‘goes out on his shield’, but he doesn’t often win these days and, for me, there’s only so often I can watch someone being battered into defeat and just hanging on for a wide scorecard loss.
The Fury Factor
Fury needs a proper fight. One with consequences. After his on again-off again retirement nonsense, which I believe hurt his No1 boxing status, he’s now telling us he will fight 3 times in 2023, one of which will be Joe Joyce. Or maybe not.
Who knows?
And, increasingly, who cares? Hear me out here, Tyson Fury is still a huge draw who creates clicks, he has so many eyes on him and generally his ‘roll up, roll up’ is good for boxing.
In the ring, he is extraordinary; that’s not what we’re considering. It’s his opponent choice recently that’s been problematic; Dillian Whyte deserved his chance but didn’t deliver, Chisora and the Joyce possibility are UK fights.
Now, I’m in the UK and Joyce is more than just a prospect, but to be truly a world champion, Fury needs to look outside the UK. And pick up big fights. AJ is an international boxing star, Usyk is the holy grail fight, but Fury, who is opening himself up to 3 fights next year, needs something to burnish his standing.
The Whyte fight was Fury coming home and the Britishness of that fight was understandable, but Chisora and Joyce? They seem like sideshows in which belts don’t really figure, they don’t seem like real contenders.
And so it feels another retirement announcement might be on…
The Fight
Better than I thought it would be. Stopped in the 10, mercifully, as Chisora was offering nothing back and being hit at will, but Delboy did say the forst round would be a great Heavyweight display and he did try.
Credit; Ring Magazine
Chisora isn’t going to dance away from trouble, he stands in front of you, his head movement a full dip. In that first round, he almost tried to get under Fury’s rangy attack and for brief moments in the fight, he seemed to have a plan.
He worked the body. Not able to really reach the except with wide, swinging punches, the got insid
e and hit that midriff. It was interesting, briefly.
But Fury wasn’t really troubled, he picked his punches with precision, he landed the overhand right or uppercut with regularity and although they tumbled over due to their close proximity, Fury danced around and took single potshots much of the time.
Fury made Chisora stop momentarily from a right hand on the button in the 5th, but in that same round his opponent backed him up briefly as he found some movement.
Yes, Derek Chisora found some movement. He almost danced a little. Not quite, but when he created some separation, it gave him time to think about his shots and brought more success.
But not enough. BBC Sport were uncompromising in summing up;
‘Fellow Briton Chisora, 38, was hurt repeatedly by the dominant champion and the referee waved off the one-sided contest in the 10th round.’
Fury came out on top in the 10th and he didn’t seem perturbed at all.
What Did It Mean?
I’m tempted to say ‘nothing’.
For Chisora, he’ll probably keep going, picking up fighters towards the top of their game who have run out of options for the moment, fighters past their best and fighters on the way up who want a pretty exciting scalp.
Credit; Bad Left Hook
Chisora will win some and lose some. What we do know is that his style, that come at you style, won’t change and that means he’ll ship punishment whoever he fights.
He should retire. I’ve said it before and I will call for it again here. Leaving boxing is hard, look at the people who returned, you don’t have to look far, Fury’s retirement may have been the shortest in recent boxing memory. And yet Chisora, if he can come to an accommodation with not being in the ring, has a possibility of after dinner speaking, TikTok enjoying life, he may even cop a few boxing commentary jobs, his turn of phrase, enjoyable unpredictability and seeming honesty is compelling. As Boxing Kingdom tweeted;
Fury? He needs to get real. He’s a Heavyweight champion and his legacy seemed to be cemented after his trilogy with Deontay Wilder.
If he had retired then. But he didn’t. Well, he did. And here he is again. It’s messy and so are the fights he has had since, versus Dillian Whyte and Derek Chisora don’t seem worldwide, top of the marquee fights. He will be fighting 3 times next year, he says; one of them needs to be extremely tasty.
Credit; Sky Sports
Because there’s an issue here. The Whyte fight was Tyson coming home, he controlled it and it was a celebration, although there are rumblings about Pay Per View buys, but this fight was much more low key. And that’s an issue, Fury provides clicks, but without a special opponent, can he maximise PPV revenue?
The marvellous Gareth A Davies reported in The Telegraph;
‘Fury described the WBA, WBO and IBF champion as “a 15-stone little midget” and vowed “to write [you] off…I’ve already beaten one Ukrainian, Klitschko, and I’ll do you as well”.
This has to happen. Fury needs another Wilder. Joyce isn’t that. AJ is. Usyk is. One of those must be the fabled 3 fights of 2023, otherwise Tyson Fury runs the risk of becoming a sideshow.
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