By: Hans Themistode
Dereck Chisora wasn’t particularly amused when he flipped on his television roughly two weeks ago.
The former heavyweight title challenger watched as Junior Fa and former WBO belt holder Joseph Parker threw punches lethargically at one another across his screen.
In no time at all, Chisora found himself uninterested in their contest which took place at the Spark Arena in Auckland New Zealand.
Despite his boredom, Chisora watched every second of their 12 round fight. Shortly after the final bell, he offered an explanation as to why their contest turned out to be more or less a dud.
“The fight was not great,” said Chisora during an interview with IFL TV. “They didn’t spar a lot, they were not in shape those guys, they did not train hard enough. There was no fear factor for both of them.”
Regardless of the lack of action, Chisora was incredulous when the final scorecards were read. Judge Paul Fitzsimmons may have scored their bout closely in favor of Parker 115-113, but the following two judges scored things much wider as Andrew Bell had it 117-111 and John Conway’s card read 119-109 all in favor of Parker.
By all accounts, Chisora (32-10, 23 KOs) believes that the right man won. But the wideness of the scorecards made him question the judge’s sanity.
“Boxing is becoming unbelievably great but the judging is becoming disgraceful. I think the boxing federation needs to figure out how they’re going to get new fresh eyes because half of these guys wear glasses, they can’t see nothing man.”
Immediately after Parker was handed the victory, Chisora wasted no time in calling him out. In fact, the British native recorded himself giving Parker a call and urged him to make a fight with him happen.
Originally, the pair were scheduled to meet in 2019 but due to a spider bite, Parker was forced to pull out. With that entire ordeal behind them and with Parker picking up his fourth straight win, Chisora revealed that they are currently in the midst of rekindling their matchup and could be on their way to making it a reality.
“If we can get Joseph Parker in the next couple months we would be happy with that. Right now we’re in talks for the fight to be in London. I’ll beat him up anytime.”
For Chisora, a big win is needed at this point in his career. On Halloween night just a few months ago, he was within a few points of taking home what would’ve been categorized as the most important victory of his elongated career as he took on former undisputed cruiserweight champion Oleksandr Usyk.
The loss may have set him back but according to Chisora, a win over Parker (28-2, 21 KOs) will point him back on track.
In terms of how their showdown would play out, Chisora isn’t interested in predicting the future. With that said, he is confident that he’ll pick up the victory. So much so, that he is already playing matchmaker for his next contest after Parker.
“After that fight, maybe if Tyson Fury and AJ (Anthony Joshua) don’t really happen I jump in there with Tyson Fury.”