Dereck Chisora says he’s going to make sure he doesn’t find himself on the receiving end of another controversial decision in his rematch against Dillian Whyte (24-1, 17 KOs) by knocking him out this Saturday night on December 22 at the O2 Arena in London, England. Chisora (29-8, 21 KOs) lost a controversial 12 round split decision to Whyte two years ago in December 2016 in London in a fight that the boxing world saw Dereck winning.
Whyte vs. Chisora 2 will be televised on Sky Box Office this Saturday. The winner keeps alive his hopes of a big payday fight against Anthony Joshua. The loser will need to pick up the broken pieces of their crumbling career and try to put it back together somehow someway.
This should be a real fun fight for the fans. The last time Whyte and Chisora fought each other, it was a 12 round war of attrition. Both guys took major shots, and kept coming back for more. It was easily the best heavyweight fight of the year for 2016. It’s unfortunate that the results of the contest was controversial.
Chisora was the B-side in that fight going in, and he found out the hard way how difficult is is to defeat the A-side guy in Whyte. On Saturday, Chisora isn’t going to let himself suffer similar treatment by the judges. He’s going to stop Whyte so that the judges don’t get a chance to score it.
“No. I am going to take him out,” Chisora said to Sky Sports News when asked if he’s still hopping mad about losing to Whyte in their first fight two years ago. “I don’t know, but I will take him out. By the time the bell goes ‘ding ding ding’ I am going to come after him.”
At least Chisora has his head screwed on straight and knows what he’s up against in facing Whyte on Saturday. It’s better that that Chisora knows what he’s stepping into so that he doesn’t approach the fight with Whyte in a naive way, thinking he’s got a great chance of winning a decision on the night. In a perfect world, Chisora should have a great chance of getting the nod on the judges’ scorecards if he does a job on Whyte on Saturday. Unfortunately, nothing has changed in terms of the difference in popularity of the two fighters going into their rematch. Whyte is still arguably the more popular fighter of the two, and as such, he’s likely going to be viewed as a champion of some sort by the judges. As you know, champions tend to get benefit of the doubt when it comes to the scoring by the judges. That’s why it’s tough for the challengers to beat the champions by a decision. Chisora wants to make sure he stops Whyte so that he removes the possibility of a controversial decision like what happened last time he fought him.
This is the perfect time for Chisora to shoot for a knockout of Whyte, as he’s catching him right after his hard fight against Joseph Parker on July 28 in London. Whyte was knocked down hard by Parker in the 12th round, and close to being stopped. It goes without saying that Whyte was ready to be taken out had there been another 20 seconds left in the round for Parker to continue to blast away at him.
Whyte wound up winning the fight by the scores 114-111, 115-110 and 113-112, but the fight would have easily gone Parker’s way of the referee had bungled a call in the 2nd round in giving Whyte a credit for a knockdown after he crashed into Parker head first. It looked like an old fashioned rugby move on Whyte’s part in slamming into the Parker head first and knocking him to the canvas. That blown call by the referee in addition to the non-calls on all the fouling that Whyte was doing ultimately cost Parker the victory, you can say. If there’s a similar referee working Saturday’s fight, then it could be one of those survival of the fittest type of fights in which the fighter that is willing to go all out and win by any means necessary will have his hand raised at the end of the contest. One would hope that there’s a competent referee assigned to the Whyte vs. Chisora 2 fight on Saturday, but unfortunately you never know what you’re going to get. If the referee is going to take a slacker approach to officiating the fight on Saturday, then it could get very ugly with massive fouling with the Marquess of Queensberry Rules thrown out the window by both fighters. Hopefully the fight doesn’t turn into a primitive affair with Whyte and Chisora resorting to caveman tactics to try and win. It’ll look bad in front of all the boxing fans that will be watching the fight live at home and at the O2 Arena. Whyte and Chisora need to represent.
Whyte had been hoping that he would get the rematch with Anthony Joshua on April 13 if he beats Chisora on Saturday. Unfortunately, there’s now talk of Joshua potentially facing Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller in the spring in New York. If this news turns out to be true, then Joshua won’t fight on April 13 at all, period. He’ll fight Miller (23-0-1, 20 KOs) in the sprint in New York, possibly at Madison Square Garden. Joshua was in New York last weekend to watch the Saul Canelo Alvarez vs. Rocky Fielding fight live at Madison Square Garden, and he saw for himself out enthusiastic the American boxing fans are in watching fights in that historic arena.
Joshua obviously wants to be a part of that by facing New Yorker Jarrell Miller in his hometown. Where that leaves Whyte is unclear. It doesn’t mean he won’t get the rematch against Joshua eventually. It just means he’ll have to wait until possibly late 2019 or sometime in 2020. Whyte will of course need to keep winning for him to keep alive his chances of an eventual rematch against Joshua. Whyte won’t get a rematch with Joshua if he starts getting sparked out by the like of Chisora and the other heavyweights that want a piece of him. Joe ‘Juggernaut’ Joyce and Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz are two fighters that want to get a piece of Whyte, but have had no luck in getting him to take the fight. It would be nice if Whyte were to take on one or both of those fighters while he waits for the smoke to clear from Joshua’s fight against Miller in the spring. It might take some persuading on Whyte’s part to talk his promoter Eddie Hearn into letting him fight Joyce or Ortiz, as he probably like the idea one bit to have him risking his hide against fighters that would have a good chance of beating hi like Joyce and Ortiz.