Tyson Fury chose the warm-up option

Briton Tyson Fury has decided on his opponent in the “warm-up” fight before the match for the undisputed world heavyweight title against Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk. They will be his compatriot Derek Chisora, a veteran who has been in top fights for many years, but has never defeated the strongest, including twice losing to the same Fury.

World Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight champion Tyson Fury is “in the process of finalizing negotiations” to fight Derek Chisora ESPN. The duel, according to him, will take place on December 3.

More recently, another possible confrontation involving Tyson Fury was associated with this date. In September, it looked like it was about to be officially announced that he would face another British boxer, Anthony Joshua. It was another twist in the high-profile and complex history surrounding the battle to become the undisputed heavyweight king.

It began after Anthony Joshua, who once held three championship belts at once – the International Boxing Federation (IBF), the World Boxing Association (WBA) and the World Boxing Organization (WBO) – for the second time in a row defeated from the first heavyweight (up to 90.7 kg) Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk, who jumped into heavyweight from the first heavyweight (up to 90.7 kg).

Few experts doubted that immediately after that, the fight for the title of absolute world champion between the two champions, Fury and Usyk, would become the main item on the agenda, guaranteeing huge public interest and the corresponding income and prize money. There hasn’t been a heavyweight fight like this for two decades.

However, contrary to the assumptions of Tyson Fury, having learned that Oleksandr Usyk is not going to return to the ring until next year, initiated negotiations with a defeated opponent. At the same time, it seemed that they were going to a successful conclusion. Anthony Joshua’s team has already agreed with the date of the fight, which was called the “Battle of Britain”, and with the distribution of the prize fund, which is not too flattering for the ex-champion: 60 to 40 percent in favor of Fury.

However, at the end of September, Tyson Fury announced that the project with the duel against Joshua had fallen through. And this decision of his in the boxing world was perceived rather as a logical step. In order not to lose tone before the meeting with Oleksandr Usyk, who still remains the main goal of Fury, who has not entered the ring since April, after winning with compatriot Dillian Whyte, he needed to fight in the near future. But still, the option of fighting against Joshua, an extremely dangerous opponent, seemed too risky. In situations like Fury’s currently in, they usually choose an opponent who is unlikely to be able to deliver very serious difficulties. And in this sense, Derek Chisora ​​is an ideal choice.

Tyson Fury, explaining why he wants to cross paths with Chisora, however, even found a beautiful reason. He recalled that until now, none of the heavyweight champions in their biography had “trilogies” – three fights with the same opponent.

In Fury’s biography, the first completed “trilogy” is his confrontation with the American Deontay Wilder. It really looks like a special event.

The two boxers first faced each other in December 2018. In that fight, Wilder, who owned the WBC belt, was a 100% favorite, since Fury, shortly before the fight, went through a period full of problems, during which he was not up to boxing. He served a doping ban, visited a psychiatrist, gained huge excess weight. However, the Briton, having been in the end in a deep knockdown, incredibly reached the final gong and achieved a draw.

In a re-fight in February 2020, Tyson Fury took away the title from Deontay Wilder by knocking him out in the seventh round. The third fight took place a year ago. It turned out to be difficult for Fury, but still turned into his early victory in the 11th round.

In the case of Derek Chisora, who is already 38 years old, the degree of intrigue is much lower. Chisora ​​is a veteran who has been in top fights since the beginning of the last decade. But he failed to cope with any of the elite opponents that got in the way.

At various times, he lost to Vitali Klitschko, David Haye, Dillian Whyte, Joseph Parker, the same Alexander Usik. Twice, in 2011 and 2014, he lost to Chisora ​​and Fury, who, with the help of these convincing wins (the first was obtained on points, the second by a tenth round knockout), strengthened the reputation of a boxer worthy of a title fight.

This fact speaks about the level of today’s ambitions of Derek Chisora. Despite his success in July against the classy Bulgarian heavyweight Kubrat Pulev, Chisora, around the same time that Fury and Joshua broke down, announced that he had decided to end his sports career.

Alexey Dospekhov