British heavyweight veteran Derek Chisora has revealed that he has two fights left before he will officially hang up the gloves for good. As names begin to be touted, his good friend Tony Bellew warned the 40-year-old fan-favourite of one name that he should steer clear of.
There have been calls for Derek Chisora to walk away from the sport after each of his last seven outings but an upset win against Joe Joyce last month has appeared to delay any decision. Instead, ‘Del Boy’ has maintained that he will return to fight in Manchester this December, before a final outing in 2025 that will mark his 50th and final professional contest.
As far as possible opponents go, there is an expectation that Chisora will collide with a fellow ticket-seller and names such as Jarrell Miller, Dillian Whyte (trilogy) and the winner of the rematch between Fabio Wardley and Frazer Clarke have been mentioned.
However, in terms of who to avoid, former WBC cruiserweight champion Tony Bellew, who has been linked to a clash with his old pal himself, told reporters that Southern Area heavyweight champion Johnny Fisher is one to avoid.
“Absolutely not, definitely not. I don’t want to see it [Chisora vs Fisher]. Johnny Fisher is a young, explosive heavyweight and that is the last thing someone like Derek needs at the stage of his career that he is at. That fight five years ago would be a proper 50/50 – that is where Johnny Fisher finds out if he has got it or not. Right now, that is an unfair match in my opinion, and I don’t want to see Derek taking an awful lot of shots in that fight.
“Johnny is a really exciting heavyweight, don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that he is the finished article because he is far from it, but he is someone that I am very excited about and someone I rate really highly. He puts his punches together really well and I think that Mark Tibbs is doing a brilliant job with him.”
“I love the style of Johnny Fisher, and I love the things that he is doing.”
Fisher has risen into British title contention this year with consecutive first-round knockout victories over Dmytro Bezus and Alen Babic extending the record of ‘The Romford Bull’ to 12-0 with 11 stoppages. Consequently, Fisher is been linked to a battle with the winner of Wardley-Clarke II in a thriving domestic division but a name such as Chisora’s would be one to grow Fisher’s worldwide fanbase even further.
However, much to Bellew’s delight, it is unlikely that Fisher would get the opportunity to take on Chisora after the latter’s admission to finish his career with Queensberry Promotions and Frank Warren. If Chisora was to take on a crossroad fight against a rising prospect, it would be expected that Queensberry’s Moses Itauma would jump at the chance.
Meanwhile, Fisher fights Andrii Rudenko (36-7) on the Smith-Fernandez card in Sheffield next month.
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