Tyson Fury is likely to face Derek Chisora in his next defence of the WBC heavyweight championship according to his promoter, Frank Warren. This will be the third meeting between the two British big men, but it’s a world away from Fury’s nail-biting trilogy with Deontay Wilder. Trilogies in boxing are used to settle scores after two exciting fights with differing results that necessitate a decider. What they are not used for is to stage a third bout after two lop-sided and not especially exciting victories for one man. At least, not until now.
Fury and Warren have been in the kitchen trying to cook up a foul feast for a while now. Before Chisora it was to be Mahmoud Charr getting wheeled out for an unpalatable payday. Chisora has at least beaten a ranked opponent in this decade, unlike the laughable ‘Diamond Boy’. But offering ‘Del Boy’ a third go at Fury is insulting, particularly given the needless retreat from fighting Anthony Joshua.
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Boxing fans were teased with a potential fight against the Olympic gold medalist, before Fury began setting imaginary deadlines to kill the negotiations stone dead. The talks had gone as far as DAZN and BT Sport sorting out broadcast rights, but this was all subterfuge. First Charr and now Chisora. It is clear the plan was to pull the plug and sell the public an inferior opponent before blaming ‘AJ’ for not signing a contract that he could not have signed, even if he wanted to, considering the business mechanics involved.
“We’ve got the highest ranked opponent on BoxRec which is now Derek Chisora. That’s where we’ll be going and that’ll be on December 3”. The words of Frank Warren, speaking to IFL TV. Citing BoxRec, an online independent ranking website, is interesting. Warren is half right, Chisora is the highest ranked available challenger apart from Joshua.
But invoking Boxrec in itself is amusing. While it is a treasure trove of fight trivia and facts, its status as a definitive set of rankings is questionable. For example, Islington’s 31-5 John Ryder is currently ranked as the second-best super middleweight on the planet, one place below Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez and above the likes of David Benavidez and Caleb Plant. Sergiy Derevyanchenko, who has lost four of his last six fights, is ranked as the sixth-best middleweight in the world. BoxRec isn’t science, it’s a handy excuse.
Even if BoxRec had Chisora as the number one heavyweight this fight would still be risible. Fury eased past ‘Del Boy’ in 2011. He stopped him in 2014. What’s changed? Two things. Namely, Fury has gone on to improve immeasurably and become a two-time heavyweight champion of the world. Meanwhile, Chisora has lost seven fights and, at the age of 38, has been fending off calls to retire.
This fight has only been made possible due to Chisora’s upset win over Kubrat Pulev last time out. This was ‘War’ Chisora’s first win since 2019 and snapped a three-fight losing streak. It also came against a 41-year-old whose last half-significant win was a decision over Hughie Fury in 2018. Winning a clash of the veterans would have been a nice feather in Chisora’s cap, a solid note on which to retire. But it is frankly ridiculous that this victory could secure him a lucrative shot at the best heavyweight in the game.
While this may seem a heavy-handed takedown of Fury-Chisora III, there are important factors to consider. The most vital is the health aspect. Chisora has taken untold punishment in his career. His all-action style has seen him take part in so many wars that it literally became his nickname. Derek has been stopped three times while many of his nine decision defeats have been brutal. The very fact I have outlined 12 losses there is another reason Chisora should not be getting this title opportunity. But his safety is first and foremost here.
Fury has not just been beating people recently, he has been destroying them. Deontay Wilder was decimated in his last two bouts with ‘The Gypsy King’. Dillian Whyte was stopped in damaging fashion too. These were challengers in their physical prime. Swap them out for a man nearing 40 who has been beaten and battered for the best part of two decades and it becomes potentially catastrophic.
There is also wider damage that can be done to boxing by such a fight. If fans are expected to pay for a completely pointless rematch to a pair of one-sided fights featuring a challenger with one win in his last four fights, what else will they be expected to pay for? This fight opens the floodgates for all manner of cretinous pay-per-views. This fight will happen and it will be behind a paywall. The best thing the boxing public can do is not pay for it. If they do, and in great enough numbers, it’s only going to get worse.
Over the coming weeks and months this fight will be promoted like there’s no tomorrow. The press conferences, featuring two of the most enigmatic and bankable fighters in the sport, will spawn viral videos left, right and centre. There will be documentaries, televised face-offs, shoving matches at weigh-ins. Chisora will get called a “big dosser” while the British public laughs like they haven’t heard that one before. Somewhere along the way, they’ll try to convince you Chisora can win. He can’t. Boxing can’t either. If this fight happens, we all lose.
*18+ | BeGambleAware | Odds Subject To Change
