By Johnny Walker
British and Commonwealth heavyweight champion Dereck Chisora caused shock waves to ripple through the boxing community today by weighing in at a career high 261 soft and loose-looking pounds for tomorrow’s heavyweight title clash with challenger Tyson Fury at Wembley Stadium in London.
Chisora weighed 244.5 pounds for his last bout, a win over Sam Sexton. Fury, on the other hand, is down 5.5 pounds from his previous bout, a KO win over Marcelo Luiz Nascimento, and is packing less weight than his opponent while holding a nearly eight-inch height advantage. At the weigh-in, Fury looked lean and muscular, a far cry from the soft, doughy looking fighter seen in previous Fury outings.
A quick perusal of various boxing chat forums shows many fans now quickly jumping from the good ship Chisora to board the Fury Express, with snide comments like, “Who was his trainer, Ronald McDonald?” being directed at the current British champion. Expect the late betting on this fight to take a sharp swing toward the challenger.
“The Big Brawl” PPV event is being distributed in the U.S. by Integrated Sports Media for live viewing at 3 PM/ET – 12 PM/PT on both cable and satellite pay-per-view via iN Demand, DIRECTV, and Avail-TVN, for a suggested retail price of only $24.95. (Check with your PPV provider for same day replay times.) The telecast is also available in Canada to all Super Channel network subscribers.