Chisora wants Parker; Wladimir not retiring after Joshua fight

Boxingnews24.com

By Scott Gilfoid: #10 WBC heavyweight contender Dereck Chisora (26-7, 18 KOs) says he would beat up WBO champion Joseph Parker (22-0, 18 KOs) if the money is there for him to accept the fight. The 33-year-old Chisora says there are harder fights in Europe than if he were to face Parker. Chisora says the 25-year-old Parker still needs to prove himself as a fighter.

Parker has a title defense next month against #1 WBO mandatory challenger Hughie Fury (20-0, 10 KOs) on May 6 at the Vector Arena in Auckland, New Zealand. If Parker wins that fight, then he could be facing IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua or WBC champion Deontay Wilder in a unification fight. Those are bigger money options for Parker than if he were to face the recently beaten Chisora, who is coming off of a 12 round split decision loss to Dillian Whyte four months ago on December 10 in Manchester, England. Chisora made it a close fight, but he ultimately ran out of gas one time too many and lost the contest. Chisora was fighting in spurts in that match against Whyte.

Chisora would throw a lot a lot of punches, and then tire and disappear for a round or two. In the end, the judges liked Whyte’s more consistent work throughout the fight rather than Chisora’s brief surges of activity. The loss for Chisora was his second defeat in his last three fights. With a record of 1-2 in his last 3 fights, Chisora isn’t exactly title challenger material, is he? You do better than that if you want to fight for a world title.

“He’s boxed nobodies, taxi drivers, bus drivers in New Zealand,” Chisora said to Fair Fax Media about Joseph Parker. “He hasn’t proven himself. He has to prove himself. He’s got to come out of the jungle he’s been living in down there. Prove yourself! For me, I don’t care about the titles. It’s about the greens. It’s about the dollar – show me the money. He can keep the title and I will keep the money, yeah if the money was right [I’d fight him],” said Chisora about Parker.

I don’t think Chisora is going to get a voluntary title shot against Parker, because it’s not a fight that would sell. Parker has much better options against Joshua and Wilder for big money fights to win world titles. Why would Parker want to fight a guy that has lost 2 out of his last 3 fights with Chisora? It wouldn’t make sense for Parker to fight Chisora.

Chisora will be fighting next month in a rematch against Robert Helenius (24-1, 15 KOs) on May 27 at the Hartwall Arena in Helsinki, Finland. Chisora and Helenius will be fighting for the vacant World Boxing Council Silver heavyweight title. This is a title that will help the winner of that fight get a title shot against WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder.

I don’t know why Chisora is talking about Parker when it’s obvious that he’s angling to get a title shot against Wilder. Chisora is ranked in the top 10 with the WBC, and he’s not ranked at all by the World Boxing Organization. Since Parker has the WBO heavyweight title, it appears that the 33-year-old Chisora is in the wrong lane if he wants to fight Parker. If Chisora really wants to face Parker, then he should forget about Helenius and go and fight the likes of #2 WBO Christian Hammer, #3 WBO Jarrell Miller, #4 WBO Andy Ruiz Jr. or #5 WBO Kubrat Pulev. Oops, Chisora already fought Pulev last year and lost a 12 round split decision to hi on May 7, 2016.

I don’t think it would be a good idea for Chisora to fight Pulev a second time, because he clearly wasn’t talented enough to beat him. Chisora should keep his focus on the 6’6” Helenius, because if he loses to him, it’s going to sound ridiculous for him to be still calling out Parker. Instead of Chisora having lost 2 out of his last 3 fights like he presently has, he’ll have lost 3 out of 4 fights. I don’t know about you but that sounds like a journeyman level fighter to me. “Show me the money,” Chisora says. Well, with 3 losses out of his last 4 fights, I can’t imagine Parker offering Chisora much of anything. Maybe Parker might be interested in signing Chisora up as a sparring partner. I’m just saying. With a resume like Chisora’s, he might be a good sparring partner, but definitely not someone that Parker should bother to defend his WBO title against.

“Don’t come to Europe because I will beat you up. That’s it, that’s the advice I can give him because there are more tougher fighters in Europe than anywhere else,” said Chisora about Parker.

There are some decent heavyweights in the UK right now, but the most talented guys appear to be elsewhere. The last time I checked, Luis Ortiz and Deontay Wilder weren’t from the UK. As far as UK heavyweights go, there’s Anthony Joshua, Dillian Whyte, David Haye, David Price, Hughie Fury, Tyson Fury and prospect Daniel Dubois. Whyte, Chisora and Price have all been exposed. They’re not unbeatable, as we’ve seen over and over. Dubois appears to lack the hand speed, right hand power and the defense for him to go far in boxing. Haye looks to be about done at age 36. I can’t see him fighting too much longer. He fights infrequently as it is. Hughie Fury might be forgotten about if he gets blown out of the water like I think he will in his title shot against Joseph Parker on May 6. Tyson Fury has gotten really heavy in his 2 years out of the ring. I don’t think he’ll ever be the fighter he once was, even if he takes all the weight off and gets back down to his old fighting weight of 250lbs. Fury was always vulnerable anyway, but the 2 years off from boxing and the weight gain will not help him. Out of the entire UK, Joshua is the only one that is truly worth fighting in my opinion. All the rest of them are just flawed guys.

A good fight for Chisora right now would be against Dave Allen or Jason Gavern. I think either of those guys would be more Chisora’s speed and level.

Boente: Wladimir isn’t looking at Joshua fight as his last fight

Former heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (64-4, 53 KOs) doesn’t plan on hanging up the gloves after his fight this month against IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (18-0, 18 KOs) on April 29 at Wembley Stadium in London, England. Wladimir just turned 41-years-old, and he’s likely to lose to Joshua in this fight, and it could be a really a really bad loss if he gets knocked out. Wladimir’s manager Bernd Boente says that he doesn’t plan on retiring after the Joshua fight. He says he’ll continue to fight. Get this; he admires Bernard Hopkins, who is still fighting in his 50s.

“If you’re 41 years old, you can’t expect that someone is fighting another 10 years, but he always said that Bernard Hopkins is one of his idols – and you know how long Bernard fought,” Boente said to skysports.com.

Well, it won’t be the end of the world for Wladimir if he gets blasted into oblivion by Joshua on April 29. It’s just a solitary loss, and it doesn’t mean Wladimir will always be knocked out every time he enters the ring from that point forward. But it would be Wladimir’s second straight defeat, and there would be fewer options for him, of course, unless he can convince Joshua to throw him a bone by giving him another world title shot. I think that would be a bad idea for both fighters.

Wladimir should move on if/when he gets knocked out by Joshua. Wladimir can always try and get a title shot against WBC champion Deontay Wilder or WBO belt holder Joseph Parker. I don’t see Wladimir beating either of those guys, but he could at least try. If Wladimir isn’t going to work his way into position for a title shot, like he didn’t do with Joshua, then it would look a tad bit strange if he gets a world title shot against Wilder or Parker. I mean, Wladimir would have lost his last 2 fights after he gets beaten by Joshua. How do you justify defending your title against a guy with a 0-2 record in his last 2 fights. If this was the NFL, it would be like a team going to the Super Bowl again and again after losing in the playoffs. The fans would not be pleased, because they want to see the best, not the teams that are failing repeatedly.

”I don’t know if Wladimir will still fight at 50, but one thing is for sure, he’s not looking at this fight as his last fight,” said Boente about Wladimir.

I seriously doubt Wladimir will be still fighting when he’s 50. In fact, I don’t see Wladimir fighting another year if he chooses to fight someone good after the Joshua fight. At this point, I think Wladimir hang up the gloves if he loses his next 2 fights. I could be wrong, but that’s my prediction. If Wladimir gets knocked out by Joshua and then by either Wilder or Parker, I then see Wladimir retiring rather than continuing his sagging career and potentially his 4th straight fight. You have to remember, Wladimir lost his last fight to Tyson Fury two years ago in 2015. Wladimir hasn’t fought since that time. If he loses to Joshua, it’ll be his second straight defeat.