MANCHESTER, ENGLAND — Tonight proved a fitting celebration of Derek Chisora’s career. Win or lose – plenty of both over an 18-year career – many fans and contemporaries travelled across the country to witness supposedly his final appearance on British shores, in appreciation of a national treasure.
Chisora conjures up another memorable moment
The 41-year-old fan favourite (36-13, 23 KOs) wept on arrival at the Co-Op Live Arena, knowing what lay before him.
After another exhausting 12-round contest, badly cut over both eyes, knockdowns in rounds nine and 12 saw him produce a (117-109, 114-112, 116-110) decision win over Otto Wallin (27-3, 15 KOs) during their IBF heavyweight title eliminator.
Bobbing and weaving from the opening bell, trying to pin the Swede against the ropes as many, including former foes Dillian Whyte and Joe Joyce, watched ringside. Five-punch combination, hold, separate. Ducking low as he often did, next came a four-punch flurry with Wallin needing time to acclimatise to a gruelling pace.
The pair exchanged power shots early in the second, Chisora more successful and Wallin’s high guard unable to thwart the short-range clubbing blows being thrown.
After a ticking off by referee John Latham for rabbit punching in the opening minute of round three, Chisora responded as you’d expect: connecting on a pair of big right hands as Wallin exhaled deeply upon hearing the bell, having endured a punishing sequence he wouldn’t want much more of.
Wallin’s pit-pat jabs and work on the back foot was well-intentioned, but not active nor powerful enough to keep Chisora at long-range. Having lost his footing on more than one occasion, Wallin pounced in a patchy fourth stanza by leaning on Chisora, looking to deplete the favourite’s engine.
Chisora’s hellacious hooks were back in the fifth, though Wallin weathered the storm well enough and early in the sixth, Latham paused the action and got a doctor’s assessment as Chisora blinked badly from his right eye, cut dangerously below it.
Passed fit to continue as the crowd noise swelled again in approval, Wallin had a shiny target to pierce and whenever up close, cuffing shots clean on the eye made the 41-year-old think twice about whether he wanted to engage at that range.
A four-punch combination and looping left hook were among Chisora’s best punches in the seventh, Wallin countering him well by this stage but perhaps a little too comfortable for his own good. Right on cue though, Chisora unleashed another inspired flurry with Wallin backed up in his own corner, blood splattering onto my laptop entering the business end of a gritty chess match between heavyweights.
Chisora landed a big left hook to start the eighth and more exhausting combos came afterwards as Wallin fired back just enough to keep the referee away, before the fan favourite was belatedly warned for straying too low downstairs.
Judging by his weary look in the final seconds of that big round, had Derek expended all of his energy? Well, if you dared questioned that, he swiftly silenced those doubts inside the first minute of the ninth with a big overhand right to stagger, then drop Wallin. Yet now, he was clearly boxing with an eye on the clock.
Retreating into the Swede’s corner in the final half-minute and looking distracted at the start of the tenth, one ringside media member queried whether this was the final round. An IBF title eliminator, he was reminded, there were still two more rounds left – ample time for a drastic momentum shift.
Chisora’s stab jabs to the body worked well, Wallin’s high guard protecting him from absorbing a howitzer before Chisora played possum in the visitor’s corner, clearly buzzed and needing to stay off the ropes, rather than invite the fight onto them.
Wallin looked to box-and-move but Chisora’s measured pressure made that tactic was essentially futile whenever the two-time world title challenger deemed it so.
Into the final round they went, Chisora’s eyes closing as his left was going too, yet that didn’t deter him from throwing with bad intentions and Wallin needed more than to engage in an exchange of jabs. Instead, he had to climb off the canvas again in the final seconds but heard the final bell after another Chisora haymaker.
Afterwards, Chisora had a series of notable faces from the British music scene accompanying him in the ring for a pre-planned ‘blockbuster’ callout – unified champion Oleksandr Usyk, longtime friend Anthony Joshua and reigning IBF titleholder Dubois, before praising the work of his first coach John Oliver.
Full undercard results
Middleweight: Sofiane Khati TKO7 (1:08) Nathan Heaney
Junior-welterweight: Jack Rafferty TKO7 (1:37) Reece MacMillan
Light-heavyweight: Zach Parker UD10 (98-92, 98-93, 97-94) Mickael Diallo
Featherweight: Zak Miller MD12 (114-114, 115-114, 115-113) Masood Abdulah to win British, Commonwealth titles
Heavyweight: Lewis Williams UD4 (40-36) Cristian Uwaka
Middleweight: Walter Fury UD4 (40-37) Joe Hardy
Middleweight: Joe Cooper UD4 (40-36) Artjom Spatar
Super-featherweight: Jermaine Dhliwayo UD4 (40-36) Mark Butler
Picture source: Getty Images
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