Eddie Hearn wants Deontay Wilder to fight Dereck Chisora

By Scott Gilfoid: If promoter Eddie Hearn gets his way, #11 WBC fringe contender Dereck Chisora (29-8, 21 KOs) will be given a world title shot against World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (40-0, 39 KOs) in his next fight following his come from behind 8th round knockout victory over former world title challenger Carlos Takam (35-5-1, 27 KOs) last Saturday night at the O2 Arena in London, England.

Chisora’s face looked like that of a loser after the fight with Takam. His face was lumped up, and he looked spent. That was not an easy fight for him. Out of all the fights that Chisora has had in his career, I think he took more punishment from the Takam fight than in any other. The heavy-handed Takam used volume punching to land countess head shots on Chisora in the fight. It didn’t matter that Chisora was using his Joe Frazier bob and weave style of trying to evade shots. Takam had no problems finding him with his power shots, especially when Chisora was backed up against the ropes like a sparring partner. That was dumb of Chisora to continually fight off the ropes, but there’s not much an aging fighter like him can do. When the wheels are gone due to age, you have to fight with your back against the ropes. Unfortunately the end result of Chisora’s decision to spend so much time backed up against the ropes was him taking a royal thrashing by Takam. It’s good for Chisora’s career that he was able to rally to stop the 37-year-old Takam in round 8, but he took a real beating in the fight and I doubt that he’ll be the same fighter afterwards. At the post-fight press conference, Chisora looked like a fighter in his 50s rather than a 34-year-old. Chisora looked very, very old and beaten after the fight. If Hearn were able to convince Wilder to give Chisora an undeserved title shot by offering him $5-7 million, I don’t see the fight going more than five rounds at best. As soon as Wilder lands one clean right hand with everything on it, Chisora would likely pitch forward face first and be counted out. With the beating Chisora took against Takam, it would be a very bad idea for Hearn to feed him to Wilder right now.

“He can fight Deontay Wilder for the WBC World title,” Hearn said about Chisora’s next fight. “There’s Jarrell Miller and Dillian Whyte.”

Jarrell Miller vs. Chisora is a doable fight if Hearn wants to risk the 300-pound ‘Big Baby’ by putting him in with ‘Del Boy.’ Hearn can stick those two on DAZN in the U.S and hope that the American hardcore boxing fans will want to pay the $10.00 subscription price per month to pay to see Miller and Chisora fight it out. I can’t see that fight being a big seller unfortunately, but that won’t likely stop Hearn from trying to sell it to the U.S public. Miller and Chisora are similar fighters with the way they fight. The difference is Miller is a lot bigger than Chisora, and he hasn’t been beaten up yet due to the soft match-making his management has done for him. If Hearn is going to put Miller in with Chisora, he’ll be taking a risk with his career. Since the 30-year-old Miller is a lot younger than Chisora, it would be bad for Hearn if he loses that fight. Miller is the only American heavyweight that Hearn has in his stable of fighters to put on his DAZN cards. If Miller gets beaten by Chisora, then it’ll be doubly tough for Hearn to try and peddle his fights on DAZN to the U.S boxing fans in the future. Of course, if Miller beats Chisora, then some of the U.S hardcore fans might be mildly impressed. The casual boxing fans in the U.S won’t care if Miller crushes Chisora to smithereens because they’ve likely never heard of him so they won’t care.

I think Hearn can probably forget about Dillian Whyte giving Chisora a rematch at this point, because I don’t see it happening. Whyte was clearly beaten by Chisora two years ago in winning a controversial 12 round split decision in December 2016 in London, England. Since that fight, Whyte has shown absolutely

no desire to fight Chisora a second time. As much as Whyte SHOULD give Chisora a rematch, I can’t see it happening. Hearn might as well be talking to himself because he’s not going to get Whyte to get in the ring with Chisora a second time.

A lumped up looking Chisora was getting a thrashing from Takam going into round eight, but he was able to hurt him with a looping right hand that hit the France based fighter in the back of the head to put him down on the canvas. Moments later, Takam was knocked down a second time by another looping shot from Chisora, and the fight was then halted by referee Howard John Foster. It was a good career-saving victory for Chisora, as if he’d lost the fight I would have surely been game over for him in terms of his career. But with the win, Chisora is now a viable opponent for one of the world champions. Hearn wants Chisora to face Wilder for some reason. Obviously, a fight between Chisora and Hearn’s money fighter Anthony Joshua wouldn’t sell in the UK, and it would likely anger fans if Hearn announced to them that he was going to match the two of them together. As such, Hearn wants Wilder to throw the 34-year-old Chisora a bone and give him a world title shot in a voluntary defense. I can’t say that the chances are good that Wilder will even bother for a second to consider throwing a bone to Chisora. Hearn mentioned wanting to put Wilder vs. Chisora on DAZN in the U.S. The chances of that happening are slim and none. Even if Wilder did want to do Hearn a favor by fighting Chisora, he sure as heck wouldn’t have the fight streamed on DAZN. It would be on Showtime Boxing, the network that Deontay fights on.

“I’d like to see Chisora fight Wilder,” Hearn said to iFLTV. “Why not? Wilder don’t want to fight Dillian Whyte.”

The opponent that Hearn needs to match Chisora up against next isn’t Wilder. He should match Chisora against Matchroom Boxing stable fighter David Allen (13-4-2m 11 KOs), who had the best performance of the night last Saturday in stopping the 6’5” Nick Webb (12-1, 10 KOs) with a beautiful left-right combination for a knockout in the 4th round. Allen is the same time of fighter that Chisora is. Like Chisora, Allen likes to throw looping right hands that frequently hit his opponents in the back of their heads. I don’t know where Allen learned how to throw shots mean-looking rabbit shots, but they sure are effective when they land. Webb didn’t know what hit him after he got clipped by one of Allen’s rabbit punches last Saturday night. Chisora vs. Allen might end up being rabbit punching clinic between these two. I don’t know who would come out on top. You would have to think Chisora, but I’m not so sure. All it would take is one looping punch from Allen to clean Chisora’s clock if he landed it to the back of his head. An in shape Allen would give Chisora a run for his money, and I could see this one being decided on which of the two land one of their rabbit shots first. Since the 26-year-old Allen is a lot younger than the 34-year-old Chisora, has less mileage on him, and seems to have the better chin, I would have to favor him.

The basic problem that Hearn has in asking Wilder to fight Chisora is the fight won’t sell in the U.S. Chisora is an unknown with the casual boxing fans, and the fans that do remember him know of him as the guy that former WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko trounced in a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision victory in February 2012. Vitali injured his left shoulder in the 2nd round and then spent the remainder of the fight battering Chisora with his right hand. Vitali even turned southpaw to jab Chisora like a punching bag. The fight was painful to watch due to how one-sided it was. Chisora took nonstop punishment to the one-armed 6’7” Vitali. It’s unclear why Vitali gave Chisora the title shot to begin with, as he had lost 2 out of his last 3 fights going into the match. I mean, that’s not exactly the type of record that you normally see for a world title challenger. Since Chisora’s loss to Klitschko, he’s lost to David Haye, Tyson Fury, Kubrat Pulev, Dillian Whyte and Agit Kabayel. We’re pretty much talking journeyman, aren’t we?

It’s nice that Chisora beat the 37-year-old Takam last night after hurting him with appeared to be a rabbit punch, but the fact of the matter is the Cameroon born fighter had lost his previous fight to Anthony Joshua by a 10th round knockout on October 28, 2017. Takam came into the fight with Chisora off the back of a knockout loss to Joshua, and who knows whether he was fully recovered from that loss.