By: Hans Themistode
Fans of Dereck Chisora were ambivalent when the news began circulating.
Despite coming off a one-sided unanimous decision defeat at the hands of former heavyweight champion Joseph Parker, promoter Eddie Hearn mentioned hard-hitting former WBC titlist Deontay Wilder as a possible opponent for Chisora.
Wilder, 36, is coming off a brutal 11th round stoppage defeat at the hands of Tyson Fury in October of 2021. Although Wilder was ultimately put away, the Alabama native dropped the current heavyweight champion twice in the fourth round and battled him tooth and nail throughout.
Since revealing his thoughts, a possible showdown between Chisora and Wilder has been met with a mixed bag of emotions. However, despite his fans vacillating over the outcome of their feasible clash, Chisora is uninterested in hearing from those who would like for him to avoid Wilder altogether.
“Some people say no, some people say yes but it’s up to me,” said Chisora to IFL TV. “I say yes. If it’s a good fight we wanna make it happen. We wanna make good fights happen.”
Chisora, 38, currently finds himself embroiled in a tough stretch. Following three consecutive victories in 2019, the British product has gone the other way.
At the tail end of 2020, Chisora attempted to derail the title hopes of Ukrainian star Oleksandr Usyk. Although Chisora had his moments, he was ultimately out-boxed by the current unified heavyweight champion. In an attempt to dust himself off and return to the win column, Chisora faced off against Parker in May of 2021.
While Chisora would score an early knockdown in the first round, Parker would rally back to win a close split decision. Seven months later, as previously mentioned, Chisora would come up short in their immediate rematch.
Although Parker and several others believe that Chisora should ultimately retire, the fringe contender has no intentions of doing so. If a bout against Wilder can ultimately be made, Chisora will gladly welcome the hard-hitting American with opened arms.
“Most fighters don’t wanna fight, I like to fight.”