Opinions and Observations: Chisora-Wilder

In a welcome surprise, the Derek Chisora-Deontay Wilder fight turned out to be full of thrilling action. Although both fighters could qualify for the old-timers’ heavyweight circuit, Saturday's bout wasn't about going through the motions to pick up a payday; both were there to crack. The fight featured heavy artillery, massive momentum swings, knockdowns, and enough dubious calls by referee Mark Bates to supply content for an entire weekend training seminar.

Ultimately, Wilder, the former heavyweight champion who traveled from the U.S. to the U.K. for the fight, won by split decision, and he was the deserving victor. He did have to survive a couple of rocky moments, and he was certainly hit hard at points in the fight. But he consistently landed better shots throughout the bout and had Chisora seriously hurt during multiple occasions. He was also credited with two knockdowns (in the eighth and the eleventh). I thought that he had a good case for winning eight or nine rounds.  

Before getting into the nuts and bolts of the fight, I want to focus on that unforgettable eighth round, which is a clear candidate for round of the year. During the round, both fighters may have been hurt multiple times, Wilder in the opening and closing seconds and Chisora throughout the rest of the frame. Wilder scored his first knockdown during the round and perhaps had Chisora ready to go, but then somehow he lost a point and then got rocked. It was riveting action! 

Wilder thrilled after the win
Photo courtesy of MF Pro

When Chisora was successful throughout Saturday's fight, it was primarily with two punches: his signature overhand right from distance, and a left hook to the body when in close. But even when he landed his best overhand rights, Wilder took them well. 

Unfortunately, Chisora also smothered himself too much on the inside. He was determined to go-for-broke in terms of getting in close but didn't offer enough variation in his attack. Even when he would get in through the front door, he didn't throw enough punches or offer any tricky lateral movement or shifting. As a result, Wilder would be able to clinch or grapple with relative ease (and this was when Chisora wasn't clinching or grappling himself).

As a surprise, Wilder, known for his straight right, featured an assortment of punches throughout the fight. He had success at times at spinning out from an onrushing Chisora with a short left hook to the temple. He landed a couple of impressive right uppercuts. Later in the fight he connected with solid jabs. He even landed a double left hook combination to the body!

Now it's no secret that Wilder made his career with his straight right hand, but his offensive variety on Saturday illustrated that he contained more tools in his toolbox than he often displayed. That double left hook to the body on Saturday certainly didn't look like it was the first time he had experimented with that combination. It seemed fluid. That he hadn't always featured it or other secondary punches throughout his career is on him. 

At a minimum what it suggests is that Wilder must be an intriguing gym fighter. The punch variety is there. In some instances throughout his career he has flashed a solid jab or a left hook, but it didn't occur enough. In most of his fights, his right hand was good enough to get the job done, but maybe against Tyson Fury or Joe Parker, it's possible that an expanded punch arsenal would have done him a world of good. And as we were reminded of on Saturday, he didn't lack other punches, but why he so seldom turned to them is another question.    

Saturday's fight was marred by referee Mark Bates, who now rivals Phil Edwards (who turned in the lone card for Chisora among the judges) as being the most offensively biased British fight official working today. Bates somehow let a cornerman get into the ring during the first round to help separate the fighters. That itself could have been grounds for a disqualification, but Bates couldn't even be bothered to take a point. 

In the third round Chisora was hurt and froze in the corner. Yet Bates stopped an oncoming Wilder and allowed Chisora to have more time to recover. 

In the eighth, Chisora went through the ropes and not only did his team help him get back in the ring (also grounds for disqualification), but then Bates decided to take a point from Wilder, who didn't do anything particularly egregious during the sequence. It should be noted that Wilder had scored a knockdown earlier in the round, so Bates essentially negated the extra point that Chisora had lost. 

So yes, the fight did feature its fair share of sloppy moments, with wrestling, fighters falling to the canvas, punches missing by a few feet, and enough shenanigans to remind viewers that boxing remains a quasi-legitimate sport. 

But let's not lose the forest through the trees here. What we got on Sunday was two veterans who were giving it their all, firing whatever they could, and refusing to buckle after being hurt. It was great prizefighting. Both realized the importance of this moment in their career. They refused to yield and pushed forward. It wasn't about style points or looking pretty. They came to land big punches and did just that.    

Finally, there was far too much snootiness from certain corners on social media regarding the quality of the fight. The bout was ridiculed by some as a drunken bar fight, a train wreck, a horror show...whatever. 

Actually, it was anything but that. It was two guys giving what they had left. And they gave it. Yes, it was not a fight that personified the sweet science. But you know what it was: PRIZEFIGHTING! The fight delighted the crowd. It was exciting! There were big punches, peril, danger. And I'd take this a million times over two cuties refusing to hurt the other guy in the ring. 

I love a great technical fight, but I love danger as well. Chisora-Wilder was not a mere hug-a-thon or a fight that featured a silent agreement of non-aggression. Both were going for the win. Both envisioned a future of making one last big run in the heavyweight division. I think that they should be applauded for their efforts. I'd tune out those who are more interested in ice capades in a ring instead of menace. There's a reason why the big boys have always carried the sport and power punchers have captured imaginations and hard-earned cash over generations.

Adam Abramowitz is the founder and head writer of saturdaynightboxing.com. 

He's a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Panel, the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, and the Boxing Writers Association of America.

Email: saturdaynightboxing@hotmail.com

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Derek Chisora: The Gatekeeper's Toolbox

In Derek Chisora's 17-year professional career, he has amassed a 35-13 record, not the type of official tally that leads to Canastota. He has never won a world title and has been stopped four times. But Chisora has played an essential role in the heavyweight division: the ultimate gatekeeper.  

Consider this: Not one of the fighters that Chisora has beaten has won a legitimate world title. And it gets even more specific: In two fights that he could have and perhaps should have won (against Robert Helenius and the first match with Dillian Whyte), neither of those two opponents would go on to be successful at winning a world title either.  

He has his fair share of wins over fighters who have been top-20 heavyweights, including David Price, Artur Szpilka, Gerald Washington, Kubrat Pulev, Carlos Takam and Malik Scott. Ultimately, if Chisora beats you, you don't really have the goods.  

Last Saturday, Chisora had perhaps the best win of his career (at the age of 40!), against top-ten ranked Joe Joyce. Like many of Chisora's fights, the Joyce bout was an all-out war. A Chisora late surge, including a knockdown in the ninth round, helped secure the victory.  

Chisora after the Joyce victory
Photo courtesy of Queensberry Promotions

Now it's important not to oversell Chisora. He has always struggled against technicians and his defense has left a lot to be desired. He's had an inconsistent gas tank and he hasn't always taken his training camps seriously. As a shorter fighter in the heavyweight division (6'1"), he almost always has a height disadvantage and while he has a couple of tricks to help close that gap, he often does start out behind the eight ball in that an opponent who can use his reach will have an immediate advantage.  

However, Chisora has remained more than serviceable in the heavyweight division because of three main factors, two of which are unique in the weight class, and another one which is a skill that few in the entire sport have mastered.  

As far back as 2011, Chisora featured a unique weapon in the heavyweight division. Facing 6'6" undefeated uber-prospect Robert Helenius, Chisora landed a looping overhand right repeatedly. The whipping shot routinely caught Helenius unaware and hurt him multiple times throughout the fight. Chisora's looping right helped close the height and reach gap. Frankly, Chisora made Helenius look ordinary that night. 

But Helenius wound up winning the fight in one of the decade's worst robberies. However, Helenius' luster was never the same. Whatever aura or intimidation factor he had was now gone.   

Chisora's constant pressure was another attribute that caused Helenius significant problems. Like many heavyweights of that era, Helenius wanted space to land his power shots, and Chisora was most unobliging in that area. Chisora's pressure nuked Helenius' game plan and the Nordic Nightmare never looked comfortable in the fight.  

Flash forward to 2020 and Chisora was still having success as a pressure fighter, running Oleksandr Usyk very close in a fascinating 12-round fight. Usyk could do little more than cover up or be evasive in the first few rounds of their fight. And to this day, Chisora might be the only fighter to beat Usyk in the championship rounds. To be fair, the fight was scored correctly. Usyk deserved the win, but to my eyes, he has never had a closer fight in the heavyweight division, and that includes his battles with Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury.  

There's also a third tool that Chisora possesses which makes him formidable: he knows how to fight off the ropes. In 2018, Chisora fought a ferocious war against Carlos Takam. It was my Fight of the Year. In that battle, Chisora and Takam took turns teeing off on the other against the ropes. And while Takam often was the one unloading volume with Chisora with his back on the ropes, it was Chisora's crafty counters off the ropes that continued to do the most damage. It was a nasty war of attrition that Chisora eventually won with a knockout in the eighth round.  

In the two fights with Whyte, Chisora again had lots of success with his back on the ropes. He knows how to absorb shorts, to deflect them and to find angles to land hard counters. He could have won the first Whyte fight and I had him up in the second before he was knocked out in the 11th. This is when many thought that Whyte was championship material. He was supposed to be levels about Chisora, but Chisora kept cracking him.  

Against Joyce on Saturday, Chisora showcased his three main attributes. Early in the fight, he consistently found holes in Joyce's defense with his looping counter right hand. He also scored with many impressive left hooks early in the fight. He had moments where he pressured effectively against Joyce. But ultimately, what won Chisora the fight was his work off the ropes late in the fight. With his back against the ropes in the ninth round, Chisora unfurled a perfect counter right hand that landed squarely on Joyce's chin, knocking him to the canvas. It was a huge momentum swing in the fight. And in the tenth round, Chisora again had glory with his back on the ropes, ultimately landing the more telling blows in the round. His work in the last few rounds was enough to earn the victory in a vicious battle.  

***

I'm sure that in the next 12-18 months Chisora will formally retire. He's been in all sorts of wars. He's taken ridiculous punishment, even in fights that he's won. He will be remembered as one of the best B-sides of his era and a fighter who helped pack arenas in London and Manchester. 

The fans have always loved him. Walking into "Hotel California," often hiding his face behind a bandana, giving his all in the ring, he has left a legacy. He was never a prized amateur. He was served up to lose against Helenius, Vitali Klitschko, Whyte, Parker, Fury, and Joyce, but he often over-performed. He literally has left it all in the ring.  

For the sake of the sport, I wish that Chisora would consider working with younger fighters after his retirement. He has a lot to offer. He could provide wonderful advice on how to deal with being the underdog, the B-side. But even more important, he has skills that need to be passed down to the next generation. Why does that looping right hand land on almost every opponent? He obviously throws the punch with a specific torque and deception that makes it hard to defend. I would hate it if that looping right hand went out of circulation. What a weapon against the right opponent!  

Chisora could also write a book on how to fight off the ropes, a skill that seems completely lost in modern boxing. I could probably count on one hand the number of boxers who are truly sufficient at this part of the sport. So many try; almost all fail. Clearly, Chisora has accumulated knowledge in this area that could be vital to anyone willing to listen, and this includes trainers as well.   

As for pressure fighting, it looks like that is finally coming back into vogue in the heavyweight division. There were generations of heavyweights infatuated with "fighting tall" and keeping distance. But the heavyweight division didn't use to be that way. Fighters like Frazier and Foreman and Tyson and Holyfield would come right at an opponent. It made for thrilling viewing, but even more importantly, those fighters all reached the mountaintop. There's no law that says fighting tall has to be the way to do it.  

Thankfully, youngsters like Richard Torrez and Moses Itauma understand that their pressure style mixed with hand speed and power can be a nightmare to deal with. Perhaps the best fighter on the planet, Usyk, had real trouble with Chisora's pressure. 

As Chisora gets closer to the sunset of his career, we should remember that fights are won in the ring. A motivated "opponent" with tools can cause all sorts of problems against supposedly better fighters. Chisora was so often brought in to play a role: sell tickets and lose heroically. And on a few occasions, he was able to tear up the script and end some dreams. Few gatekeepers ever achieve his level of prominence or popularity, but it has been well earned. On Saturday, after defeating Joyce, he took the microphone and asked his fans to cheer him on with one more song. It was the glory. And there was nothing that could take that away from him. 

Adam Abramowitz is the founder and head writer of saturdaynightboxing.com. 

He's a contributing writer for Ring Magazine, a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Panel, the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, and the Boxing Writers Association of America.

Email: saturdaynightboxing@hotmail.com

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