Looking ahead to Tyson Fury’s voluntary WBC heavyweight title defence against Derek Chisora, former champion David Haye has said Chisora will go down in history should he win.
Following a bit of a struggle to find a dance partner, Fury will face Chisora on December 3 in the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and broadcast on BT Sport Box Office. The champion goes into the bout a heavy, heavy favourite.
Haye, who unified the belts at cruiserweight before moving up and winning one in the top division, first talked up Chisora’s chances at upsetting the odds. Speaking to Pro Boxing Fans, he used ‘Del Boy’s 8th round knockout over Carlos Takam as an example.
“I picked Carlos Takam to beat Derek. I thought Derek at the time was past his best, and I had sparred Takam and he was an absolute nightmare …
As the fight transpired exactly what I thought was gonna happen started happening, but what I didn’t calculate was Derek Chisora is made for war. And that was a war. And he ended up finding an overhand right to effectively close the show, from a position where he had no business still being in the ring.”
Despite beating the odds on that night, facing ‘The Gypsy King’ is a different matter entirely. Fury is such a favourite in the fight that there has been backlash from fans on the matchmaking.
The pair have fought twice already in their careers, with Fury taking both victories. It’s that fact that leads Haye to believe it would be an upset that trumped all others.
“That would probably be the biggest heavyweight upset in history. I can’t think of one that would be bigger than that. Buster Douglas, that’s not as much. Hasim Rahman. Oliver McCall. No, this would be [the biggest] because Tyson Fury’s beat him twice before, so the stats are so heavily weighted in Tyson’s favour. It will be the biggest heavyweight upset of all time.”
Douglas shocked the world when he stopped Mike Tyson. Rahman knocked out king of the ring, Lennox Lewis – as did Oliver McCall. None of these, according to ‘The Hayemaker’, would reach the heights of Derek Chisora beating Tyson Fury.
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