Dereck Chisora
By Kamangeni Phiri 12-10-2022
In Boxing history, there are very few contenders who secured a world boxing title shot at the age of 38 burdened with a record of 12 defeats, including three losses on the trot in their last four fights.
Yet Zimbabwean born boxer, Dereck “War” Chisora, now a Briton, has done just that. He will be in the ring on December 3, 2022, trading leather with defending champion Tyson Fury in an all-British WBC world heavyweight title clash of the titans.
The trilogy bout between Fury and Chisora will take place on a Saturday at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, an outdoor arena with potentially freezing December conditions.
However, the ring at the 62,850-seater arena will be under cover, although fans who will be seated on the pitch could be exposed to the elements.
But Chisora, the title contender is not allowing the potentially freezing conditions to take away the warmth out of his big fight. He believes the fight will be “unbelievable”.
“I need to knock him out, I want to knock him out,” Chisora told Sky Sports.
“This will be a good fight. I can’t really say much because they put a gag on me in the contract, so I can’t really say anything. … but I want to take what’s his and make it mine”.
A lot has changed since the two British heavyweight fighters last traded leather in 2014. Britain is no longer part of the European Union and the only monarch the two boxers knew, Queen Elizabeth the Second died in September, 2022.
Chisora, who at 38 is certainly no longer a boy, dropped his moniker ‘Del Boy’ in 2018 for a more imposing mature one, ‘War’. He has changed managers twice as he tried to redefine a flagging career.
The name ‘War’ was meant to mark the boxer’s renaissance in 2018 under the management of retired British boxer, David Haye, a former world champion whom he believed had the capacity to take him to the top of the sport.
“He (David Haye) is one of very few managers who have won world titles,” said Chisora to British publication, Mirror, back then. “He knows what it is like to step in the ring putting everything, including your life, on the line. I am at a point in my career I know I cannot afford to make mistakes.
“‘Del Boy’ is no more, I am not playing, I am not cutting corners or looking for the short cuts, I have realised I need to live the life of a professional if I am to achieve what I know I am capable of. “There will be no more late nights partying, drinking, getting distracted by stuff that will simply move me away from my dream. To all heavyweights out there who think Derek Chisora has had his time, missed his moment, you’re wrong, this is just the beginning, this is WAR.”
But it never exactly turned out like that. The former enemies-and opponents’ partnership lasted for three years as it ended in 2021 after six fights with an evenly balanced record.
Chisora won three fights under Haye’s management, including a big stoppage of David Price but was knocked out by Dillian Whyte and slipped to points defeats to Oleksandr Usyk and Joseph Parker.
Both the boxer and his former manager Haye agreed that Chisora greatly improved as a pugilist when he assumed the moniker War as he was now giving fighting fans, “the big nights of heavyweight clashes they have called out for.”
In the December 3 fight, Chisora will be hoping the moniker ‘War’ coupled with lessons drawn from Haye’s stewardship would bring better fortunes against a seasoned opponent who has already defeated him twice in their earlier two meetings in 2011 and 2014.
His opponent and friend, Fury, is not sitting on his laurels either. He says he is aware of Chisora’s improvements in the ring and rates him highly as a boxer but is prepared for him.
“He comes and does exactly what it says on the tin – he goes to war,” said Fury. “He has changed his name from ‘Del Boy’ to ‘War’ and we’re going to get a war.
I did outbox him comfortably the second time, but Chisora’s style has changed and so has mine! I used to be a tip-tap boxer on the back foot, jibbing and jabbing around the ring, but now I’m an HMS destroyer!
“When you’ve got two heavy forces colliding then someone is getting knocked out. If he lands a punch on me, a big swing, I’m getting knocked out. If I land a big swing on him then he’s getting knocked out, so the fans are going to win.”
Not many dreamt that Chisora, with a ranking outside the top ten in all four major governing bodies, would be getting a shot at a world title at this stage of his career.
Pundits say Fury is using the Chisora fight to keep himself in good shape ahead of a possible unification fight of all heavyweight boxing belts in 2023 with Ukrainian boxer, Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk.
Usyk holds the WBA, IBF and WBO heavyweight belts while Fury is the WBC champion.
The plan from Fury’s camp was to first fight Antony Joshua (AJ) and they had already booked Cardiff stadium for December 3 – in the hope of luring AJ into was dubbed “the biggest fight in British boxing history” and then Usyk.
Joshua refused the fight and Usyk ruled himself out with an injury, leaving Fury who last fought in April2022 short of options.
This is how the Finchley slugger, Chisora, suddenly found himself as a frontrunner for a shot at the green and gold belt.
But make no mistake; the Zimbabwean-born British boxer is no pushover. He has fought world champions like then WBC title holder, Vitali Klitschko in 2012 and Usyk, another Ukraine fighter and lasted the distance, matching both champions pound for pound. Chisora lost both matches by judges’ unanimous decisions.
“I rate Derek Chisora as highly as I rate Usyk, and I will train as hard for Derek as I would for anyone in the world. I’d have to be an idiot not to,” said Fury summing up the threat posed by “War” Chisora.
Derek Chisora is a professional British boxer born on December 29, 1983 in Mbare, one of the oldest suburbs in Zimbabwe’s capital city, Harare. He is the son of Viola and Paul Chisora. His parents divorced when he was just four years old. Chisora then went to Hatfield where he spent his early years in the care of his maternal grandmother and step-grandfather. As a teenager he attended Churchill School, where he became a paramedic for the school’s sports team. At the of 16, Chisora and his family moved to the United Kingdom in 1999. They settled in Finchley, London.
He has challenged for the WBC heavyweight title once in 2012 and the December, 3 fight will be his second shot at the belt. Chisora has held multiple heavyweight championships at regional level, including the British and Commonwealth titles from 2010 to 2011, and the European title from 2013 to 2014. As an amateur, he won the ABA super-heavyweight title in 2006.
Chisora is ranked as the world’s eighth-best active heavyweight by BoxRec. Chisora’s knockout-to-win percentage stands at 70 percent.
The Mbare-bred boy was a late starter in the sport as he launched his boxing career at the age of 19. His club, Finchley ABC in Barnet, North London, also groomed heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua.
Chisora turned professional under Frank Warren‘s Queensberry Promotions banner. Parallels can be drawn between Derek and another legendary pugilist who also hailed from Mbare, the late Proud ‘Kilimanjaro’ Chinembiri. Like Kilimanjaro, Chisora is heavily built and agile, two strengths that the boxers applied effectively in punishing opponents. Chisora made his professional debut on 17 February 2007 at the Wembley Arena in London where he beat Hungarian István Kecskés by a technical knockout (TKO) in the second round in typical Kilimanjaro style.
Chisora’s accent carries more echoes of Finchley than Harare although he told the Guardian that he still speaks fluent Shona. When he arrived in Finchley from Harare, Chisora hanged out with some local bad boys and ended up engaging in petty crimes, including street fighting.
This, ironically, was to be the genesis of an illustrious boxing career which was to give him fame and millions of British pounds.
“There was evidence but not enough to put me in prison. So we asked for probation. I think they saw I wasn’t ruthless. I obeyed the rules for two years and my probation officer, Peter Yates, said: ‘Why don’t you try boxing?’ He fixed me up at Finchley Boxing Club,” Chisora said in an interview he did with the Guardian way back in 2010.
Like most celebrities, the man prefers to keep his family life private but is quick to declare his undying love for his two beautiful daughters.
The identity of the girls’ mother, like that of the destiny of the WBC belt to be fought for on December 3, remains unknown.
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